top of page

By:

Akhilesh Sinha

25 June 2025 at 8:23:54 pm

Public Service and a New Path to Change

Part - 3 Name: Divya Mittal Where: (born) . Work: Uttar Pradesh Besides the festivities, Navratri is an occasion to honour women's courage, determination and self-confidence. The nine forms of Goddess Durga inspire us to stand against injustice, confront challenges fearlessly and dedicate ourselves to the welfare of society. Against this spiritual backdrop, Divya Mittal, a daughter of Haryana, has drawn attention with her decision to enter Uttar Pradesh politics. A 2013-batch Indian...

Public Service and a New Path to Change

Part - 3 Name: Divya Mittal Where: (born) . Work: Uttar Pradesh Besides the festivities, Navratri is an occasion to honour women's courage, determination and self-confidence. The nine forms of Goddess Durga inspire us to stand against injustice, confront challenges fearlessly and dedicate ourselves to the welfare of society. Against this spiritual backdrop, Divya Mittal, a daughter of Haryana, has drawn attention with her decision to enter Uttar Pradesh politics. A 2013-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, she announced her resignation in August this year, expressing her desire to explore a new avenue for public service through politics. Born on December 23, 1983, in Rewari, Haryana, and raised in Delhi, Divya Mittal graduated in Engineering Physics from IIT Delhi and pursued management studies at IIM Bangalore. After working with JPMorgan in London, she chose the civil services. She secured the 68th rank nationwide in the 2012 UPSC examination and joined the IAS. Her husband, Gagandeep Singh Dhillon, is also a former civil services officer. The couple has two daughters. Mittal began her administrative career as a Sub-Divisional Magistrate in Meerut before serving as Chief Development Officer in Gonda and District Magistrate in Sant Kabir Nagar, Mirzapur and Deoria. Her last assignment was as Special Secretary in the Uttar Pradesh government's Board of Revenue. Having gained considerable administrative experience, she now seeks to pursue change through greater public participation in politics. During her tenure as District Magistrate of Mirzapur, Mittal helped bring piped drinking water to Lahuria Dah, a remote village nestled among the district's hills. Its nearly 2,000 residents had long depended on water tankers, a damaged well and a distant reservoir. In August 2023, after decades of hardship, piped water reached 125 households. The achievement demonstrates how administrative sensitivity, combined with determination, can bring tangible improvements to ordinary people's lives. During Navratri, Mittal visited the Vindhyavasini Devi temple in Mirzapur. Rather than joining an established political party, she expressed her intention to build a new political platform with citizens. She invited teachers, doctors, farmers, labourers, students and ordinary people to join her initiative. Challenging the influence of money, muscle power and caste-religion calculations in electoral politics, she declared, “I do not want to spend that money; I want the road instead.” Her vision is to create a platform where people can speak freely, raise questions and participate without fear. Mittal’s initiative represents a possible convergence of women’s empowerment and public service. However, translating good intentions into popular support will require a strong organisation, clear policies and sustained public engagement. Her political journey, beginning amid prayers to Goddess Vindhyavasini, will be meaningful only if its ultimate purpose is not the pursuit of power but the welfare of society, especially its most vulnerable citizens. That, too, is a profound expression of the divine feminine celebrated during Navratri.

Systemic Rot

Correspondent
47 minutes ago
2 min read

The agitation over irregularities in the MPSC system has exposed the fragility of public recruitment in the state. This systemic problem threatens not merely careers but the confidence in the promise of equal opportunity.


A public examination rests on an elementary compact which is that candidates invest their time and money and the state promises a fair contest. When that compact is compromised, the damage extends well beyond a cancelled paper.


It corrodes faith in the proposition that ability, rather than influence or access, determines who gets a government job. The government finally has agreed to a judicially headed inquiry into alleged irregularities, including paper leaks. The panel, chaired by former judge Dilip Bhosale, includes senior IAS officer Tukaram Mundhe as secretary. Its mandate is to examine the allegations, with a report expected within 60 days.


In recent years, the MPSC has been bedevilled by repeated disruptions, uncertainty over examination schedules and questions about the commission’s transparency that have frustrated the dreams of aspirants, many of them from rural Maharashtra.


Competitive examinations, be it the UPSC or MPSC, consume years of preparation, coaching fees and family savings. Many candidates come from modest backgrounds, for whom a government appointment represents economic security and upward mobility. A compromised examination imposes costs that cannot be measured by the expense of conducting it again. Time lost cannot be restored, and candidates who have prepared honestly should not have to bear the consequences of institutional failure.


The government’s concessions address several immediate grievances. These include a commitment to recruit 70,000 people over three years, increase vacancies through the Group C examination, and withdraw cases registered against protesters.


But recruitment targets require published schedules and transparent results. Without these, the government’s commitment risks becoming another empty announcement against which aspirants must eventually agitate.


The government must realise that institutional, rather than individual, accountability matters more in fixing systemic rots in bodies like the MPSC. The commission needs safeguards against paper leaks; it needs secure independent audits, and a credible mechanism for investigating complaints.


The political participation of opposition leaders has inevitably complicated the protest. But political involvement does not, by itself, invalidate legitimate grievances. Equally, the government must resist treating public order as a substitute for addressing the substance of the agitation.


The students have returned to their studies, but the underlying dispute remains unresolved. The 60-day inquiry offers the government an opportunity to replace assurances with evidence and reform. Its credibility will depend on the independence of the investigation, the publication of its findings and the implementation of its recommendations.


For the MPSC, the real examination has only begun. Its real test is whether it can restore the belief among Maharashtra’s students that merit, and not manipulation, determines who gets through.

Comments

bottom of page