The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), under the Union Agriculture Ministry, has issued notices to IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal seeking ₹1.63 crore in damages for what it terms her “unauthorised occupation” of an official bungalow on its Pusa campus in Delhi between May 2022 and February 2025.

Nagpal, a 2010-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre and currently District Magistrate of Lakhimpur Kheri, said she had sought extensions because of her parents’ ill health and had requested a waiver of the penal charges.

“I had requested the Ministry for extension, which was allowed, and I have paid the rent for the same and subsequently vacated the house. Still, due to some lack of paperwork they added compounding penal charges which are notional and impractical. I have requ

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