SP Mandi Soumya Sambasivan leads rescue efforts after torrential rain pummels dist

The SP was seen visiting relief camps in Beas Sadan of Mandi district Tuesday. She also visited Old Mandi along with Deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri.

She has previously served as SP Sirmaur and SP Shimla, among others. Because of her commitment to work, people often call her a ‘Singham’ and ‘Dabang’ officer.

During the rescue operation in Mandi in the past two days, she could be seen convincing people living along the Beas River to move to safer places. She even managed to shift around 80 jhuggi (slum) dwellers to a gurdwara in Mandi.

On Monday, she said: “There is a state of complete disaster in Mandi district. Many buildings, bridges, and parking lots have been washed away. Our local teams and SHOs have done good work in evacuating citizens.”

“Things are improving now as the rain gods have been kind today. We are making efforts to open the blocked roads as well so that traffic can run smoothly in the state. People must follow our social media pages to get the updates and should not panic at all,” the IPS officer said Tuesday.

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The young officer is popular on social media and has a fan club as well. In 2016, she was in the news when she called young girls to her office and taught them how to make pepper spray to tackle eve-teasers. She is also credited with busting an inter-state drug cartel and cracking many murder cases.

An avid reader herself, Soumya also writes poetry. She has already penned a book, Tara the Enchantress.

Notably, the HP cadre IPS officer cleared UPSC on her first attempt. However, she hails from Palakkad in Kerala. The only child of her parents, Soumya’s father was in military engineering services while her mother is a homemaker.

Soumya did her graduation in biotechnology from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, and post-graduate diploma in business analytics (PGDBA) from ICFAI, Hyderabad. She worked in the banking sector for two years and also prepared for the UPSC exam.