[Reader-list] As DM, she closed down 100 arms shops

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

As DM, she closed down 100 arms shops
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*Alka Pande <http://www.indianexpress.com/columnist/alkapande/>* Posted: Mar
25, 2009 at 0200 hrs IST

Indian Express

*Lucknow:* A young woman IAS officer, Ministhy S, has dared to bring the
shutters down on shops of 100 arms dealers and cancelled 70 weapon licences
in Mainpuri district, the bastion of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam
Singh Yadav.

Her daring action, within a month of taking over as the District Magistrate
of Mainpuri, has irked Mulayam. At a rally in Mainpuri on Monday, he
allegedly said: “Since the DM is a woman I am restraining myself from saying
much. But she should check her brain and know that it is Mulayam Singh Yadav
who is contesting from Mainpuri.”

This is the fourth posting of Ministhy, who is from Kerala and is a 2003
batch IAS officer from UP cadre. In her initial days, she had been posted as
joint magistrate in Jhansi and Agra. Before Mainpuri, she was posted in
Shahjahanpur where she posted land lease records on the
Government<http://www.indianexpress.com/special/government,%20india/>website.
Known as a net savvy officer, Ministhy holds a B Tech degree with
distinction in Electronics Communication from Kerala. Besides, she is a gold
medalist in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from XLRI
Jamshedpur.
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 An avid writer, she has got three books published — Unequal Equations,
Learning with Tippy Tortoise: Tales for Kids and Happy Birthday: Poem for
Kids. A fourth book is in the pipeline.

Her decision to shut the arms shops has hurt Mulayam as most affected
dealers have a close association with the SP. Records at the DM office
confirm this. “The majority of shops belong to influential people who have
direct or indirect political connections and most of these shops either do
not exist or they are being run from homes. A few are run alongside medical
stores or utensils stores,” said an official.

He named two shops — Payag Gun House, running from a medical store and for
which the licence is issued in the name of Mritunjay Yadav, and Sheela Gun
House, run from a house and for which the licence has been issued in the
name of Sheela Yadav. Over half a dozen licences issued for arms shops —
which after a check were found non-existent — belonged to SP MLC Awdhesh
Kumar Yadav, SP MLA Sandhya Katheria and Katheria’s father.

But SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said, “They have deliberately chosen
this crucial time to take action against the SP leaders and workers.”
Mulayam too is reported to have said at Monday’s public meeting that
“weapons and arms shop licences of our party people are being cancelled
arbitrarily”.

The DM has set up a committee to look into each licence of arms dealership
and individual weapon.

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