IAS officer Divya Mittal whose rejig sparked row now posted as Deoria DM

On August 30, 2023, after piped water reached the village, Mittal held a small “jal pujan”, where she opened a tap with running water for the first time in 70 years.

This apparently didn’t go well with the local BJP leader Vipul Singh, who wrote to CM Yogi Adityanath, complaining about her.

Subsequently, she was transferred on September 1 and then put on waitlist from September 4, 2023 to February 1, 2024. On February 1, she was posted as CEO of Uttar Pradesh Rural Road Development Agency.

In September last year, The Indian Express had reported how residents of Lahuria Dah village were unhappy with Mittal’s transfer from Mirzapur district.

Singh had said that Mittal performing puja was against protocal and that it should have been done by someone from the government.

“The local MLA, MP, and others were not invited,” he had said.

On September 4, the pipe supplying water to the village was broken by “anti-social elements” and the supply had stopped once again.
Lahuria Dah is a small village in eastern UP’s Mirzapur, which has a population of around 1,500 people and falls in the most backward regions of eastern UP. It is inhabited mostly by members of the Dalit community, with some Yadav and Baniya homes.

Mittal, who has an MBA from IIM Bangalore and did her B.Tech from IIT Delhi, had quit her job as an exotic derivatives trader in London to join the civil services. She is a 2013 batch IAS officer.

On Wednesday, she wrote on X, “’This too shall pass’. A truth that gives you hope in bad times and humility in good.”