LUCKNOW: A 2013-batch IAS officer, Divya Mittal, announced her resignation in a social media post on Sunday morning, bringing an end to her “unforgettable 13-year journey”.In a personal and poetic note, Mittal said that while her official position had ended, the dream given to her by the country’s soil would remain alive.
Her social media post
Mittal said she had grown up in an ordinary environment with a dream of building a good and successful life.She studied at IIT-Delhi and IIM-Bangalore before taking up a job in London. However, she wrote that even after achieving “everything”, she felt something was amiss.“Not being in my own country used to trouble me,” she wrote, adding that her education, confidence and the strength to walk with her head held high anywhere in the world were all debts owed to India. “I had to repay that debt,” she said.Mittal returned to India and joined the IAS, describing it as a privilege that gave her an opportunity to contribute to her country.Recalling her postings, she wrote that Deoria taught her that standing with the right was not an option but a duty.She said Mirzapur taught her that “impossible is not a fact, but merely an opinion”. She also credited the blessings of Maa Vindhyavasini and the trust of the people for teaching her that true strength did not come from a position.Mittal said her biggest realisation was that her personal dreams had already been fulfilled and that she now had to live for the dreams she had seen for her people.She wrote that the true satisfaction of public service came from seeing the happiness of families receiving land rights for the first time, people with disabilities gaining an opportunity to live with dignity, and farmers getting water for their fields.“Behind every govt file is a person,” she wrote, adding that preserving that person’s dignity was the essence of justice.She also acknowledged that she had initially been “foolish” to think she had joined public service to give something to people. “In reality, I received far more from them. Their happiness, affection and trust gave me the courage to continue even when I felt tired or broken,” she said.Mittal recalled an elderly woman from Lahuriya Deh village in Mirzapur, who touched her head with trembling hands after seeing water reach the village for the first time. The project brought piped tap water to 125 households after a 75-year wait.She also created a free mobile app to help first-generation learners in rural Uttar Pradesh, inspired by her experience of learning French through conversation-based classes at Alliance Française.Transferred from Deoria to Lucknow in May as special secretary in the revenue department, Mittal is from Delhi.She and her husband, Gagandeep Singh, an ex-bureaucrat, are alumni of IIT-Delhi and IIM-Bangalore.
