Former IAS officer of UP cadre, Divya Mittal has made the picture clear regarding her next step after leaving the administrative service. She said that now she will enter politics, but will not join any political party. She says that she wants to work with the common people to create a political platform based on the questions and problems of the public.

read more

Divya Mittal said that after resigning from IAS a few days ago, she had many questions. People wanted to know what she would do next, with whom she would go and where she would start. She said that it took her some time to answer these questions, because she herself was preparing for this new path. Divya Mittal had announced her resignation on 30 August 2026 after 13 years of administrative service. At that time he had mentioned personal and family reasons behind his decision. His resignation became effective from September 15.

New innings will start from Uttar Pradesh

Divya Mittal said that Uttar Pradesh was not just a workplace for her, but the people here considered her a part of the family. She said that she had come to Uttar Pradesh as an officer, but the people here adopted her like a daughter. For this reason, she also wants to start her political journey from Uttar Pradesh. Referring to the history and social changes of Uttar Pradesh, he said that this state has given direction to the country on many occasions. He told people not to wait for any one person to be the Messiah. According to him, people themselves will have to initiate change.

i want to be the voice

Divya Mittal said that politics will not be a medium for her to reach any position. She said that she wants to become the voice of those people whose voices do not reach the government offices and even after reaching them, many times they are not heard. She said that even after so many years of the country’s independence, many fundamental problems still exist and she wants answers to these problems. In this context, he mentioned many experiences of his administrative tenure. First of all he gave the example of his meeting with a woman from Lahuriyadah area of ​​Mirzapur. According to her, she was inspecting the work of supplying water to the hilly area. Meanwhile, a woman came to him and told him her problem. According to Divya Mittal, she expected that the woman would demand some facility like pension, housing or water, but the woman demanded to start the next class of the school in the village. The woman told that the school in the village is only till the fifth class and after that there is a lot of difficulty in continuing the education of the children further. Divya Mittal said that she looked at the rules and approval process related to the school. According to him, the school got approval, but even after three years its construction could not start. He raised questions as to why the work was not done when rules and approvals were in place. In his words, the problem was not of resources but of intentions.

Story of government land and paper kept in a foil

Divya Mittal shared another case from her administrative experience. He told that a person had met him when he was Special Secretary Revenue. The documents related to the lease of government land were kept in a foil with him. According to him, the person had got the lease of the land but did not get actual possession. When she got the documents checked, irregularities came to light in the related report. Divya Mittal said that after talking to the concerned officer, the report was returned and action was also taken against the person who prepared the report. After this the matter was to get possession of the land. He said that despite talking to the officials several times, he got the reply that ‘it has been forbidden from above.’ Regarding this matter, he raised the question that who is ‘above’. He said that the people are considered supreme in the Constitution, hence why should a person have to resort to recommendations and phone calls for his rights.

Issue of roads, bridges and potholes also raised

Divya Mittal also mentioned the problems of roads and bridges in rural areas. He said that there are thousands of villages in the country where there is still lack of basic facilities like roads or bridges. He said that connectivity of many villages gets affected during the rainy season and people keep waiting for years. At the places where roads are built, accidents occur due to potholes. He did not just see this problem as linked to the poor condition of the roads, but raised the question of accountability. He said that many times the officials and responsible people know what the condition of the road is and where the problem is, but there is delay in taking action. She said that it is not enough to just treat such deaths as accidents and move on and she wants to talk about accountability in these cases.

Paper leak and the question of the future of youth

In her address, Divya Mittal also raised issues related to youth and education system prominently. She said that as a girl from an ordinary family, she got the opportunity to move ahead through education, but today’s youth face different challenges. Referring to the incidents of paper leak, he said that students prepare for competitive examinations for many years and their hard work gets affected if there are irregularities in the examination process. Along with this, he also expressed concern about the rapidly increasing use of Artificial Intelligence i.e. AI. He said that in the coming time, AI can change many types of work and this is raising questions regarding the employment of youth. Divya Mittal said that she is the mother of two daughters and hence it is natural for her to be worried about the times to come. His question is why there is not enough discussion at the public level about the future towards which today’s children are moving.

politics has to change

Divya Mittal said that her aim is not to change just one politician, but to bring about a change in the way politics works. He used four words for his politics: intention, justice, concern and thinking. He said that politics should be such that people’s problems are heard and people should not be seen merely as election figures. She clearly said that she will not go with any political party. According to him, raising the same questions while living within the political systems which did not solve the problems of the common people is not the right path for them. However, he also said that how the new politics will be formed and what will be its structure, it will be decided together with the people.

Rumors also mentioned after resignation

Divya Mittal also mentioned the discussions that took place on social media after her resignation. He said that within a few hours of his resignation, a claim was made by the state spokesperson of a political party about a meeting about him, which according to him did not take place. She saw it as an attempt to intimidate women in politics and said that she was not afraid of it. He said that there should be no attempt to keep people away from public life through social media trolling or personal allegations.

We need people’s power, not money and muscle power.

Divya Mittal also expressed her views on questions like money, muscle power and caste equation to enter politics. She said that she does not have huge financial resources or muscle power for electoral politics and she does not believe in doing politics on the basis of caste-religion equation. Questioning the money spent in elections, he said that ultimately that money comes from development related resources. She said that she does not want such money, rather she wants to see it spent on facilities like roads, bridges and schools. She also said that while working in administrative service, she did not take decisions by asking the caste or religion of any person and she would like to move ahead on the same principle in politics also.

IAS journey ends from 15th September

UP cadre IAS officer Divya Mittal of 2013 batch had announced her resignation from administrative service on August 30. He had cited personal reasons, family priorities and new goals in life. The Central Government accepted his resignation and it became effective from 15 September 2026. After resignation, Divya Mittal had said that IAS job is just a chapter of her life. He also hinted at his future options related to family, writing, teaching and social service.

Left her job in London and became IAS

Divya Mittal studied from IIT Delhi and IIM Bangalore. After this she worked in London, but later returned to India and prepared for UPSC and became IAS. His administrative career is said to be about 13 years long. While being the District Magistrate of Mirzapur, he was also discussed about the initiative of providing piped water to a village. Apart from this, he handled administrative responsibilities in many districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Opposition leaders reacted to the resignation
After Divya Mittal’s resignation, Congress leader Ajay Rai had said that if Divya Mittal wants to contest elections, then the party can consider her name. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had also raised the issue of alleged pressure on officials in Uttar Pradesh after his resignation. This was his political charge; Divya Mittal had said about her resignation that it was a conscious decision.

—- End —-