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"Today, I voluntarily resigned from the IAS, bringing an unforgettable 13-year journey to a close." With those words Divya Mittal announced on social media on Sunday, 31st August 2026, that she was walking away from civil services. The resignation of 43-year old 2013-batch Uttar Pradesh cadre officer serving as special secretary in the revenue department is yet to be formally accepted.
The Times of India of 4th September 2026, reports that her farewell post retraced her journey from IIT-Delhi and IIM-Bangalore to a job -JP Morgan - in London and then back to India to repay what she called a "debt to this soil."
Her decision surprised colleagues and admirers. She had acquired a public following unusual for a bureaucrat. In Mirzapur and Deoria, she became known as an accessible, hands-on adminstrator. She used social media to communicate her work.
Her best known initiative brought piped water Lahuriya Deh, a remote hilltop hamlet. People there had been depending on tankers and pits for drinking water since 1947 and before. The completion of the Lahuriya Deh watetr project became a source of friction. She perfoemed the "jal puja' when water reached the village. Elected representatives were absent. Critics accused her of sidelining politicians. Her supporters saw an administrator more interested in finishing the work than managing political optics.
She was soon transferred from Mirzapur, soon after the event. She remained without a posting for several months.
Those who worked with her describe two distinct sides to her administrative personality. She was soft spoken and approachable with members of the public. But she could lose her temper in official meetings when instructions were ignored. Her willingness to take decisions independently won her admirers. But it did notalways make for easy relations with elected representatives.
She was DM at Deoria and Mirzapur. When she snet a represenative to receive a Union Minister - Also Mirzapur MP - it generated a confrontation. Her differences with Committees ahd generated contoversy. hervisibility added another layer to the friction. Detractors were of the view that the officer's public profile was beginning to overshadow the institution she represented.
She belonged to Rewari, Haryana. Later the family shifted to Delhi. She studied engineering at IIT-delhi -2001-2005- and afterwards the IIM Bangalore. After obtaining her management degree, she joined JP Morgan in London.
Her husband, Gagandeep Singh Dhillon, was her senior at bith IIT-Delhi and IIM-Bangalore. He was with the Citigroup in London. The couple married in 2007.
Despite weel paid jobs international finance they jointly returned to India in 2009 to prpare for civil services. While Mittal entered IAS in 2013, Dhillon joined the Indian Trade Service in 2011.. He worked in areas like foreign trade and export controls. However he resigned from from govt service in May 2022. He has returned to financial markets.
Former colleagues state, Divya's ambition and appetite for difficult assignments were evident early in her career. When delays arose in Cadre allocation at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, she and two other officers took on the technically demanding exercise themselves and completed it for the entire batch.
Some officers who know Divya describe her as an "over achiever" and believe professional stagnation may have influenced he move.
According to them she may have found the slower phases of a bureaucratic career frustrating after moving rapidly through elite academic institutions and international finances to demanding to district assignments.
Divya has stated that her resignation was nether impulsive nor due to pressure.
Her interest outside administration have been varied.
Divya Mittal is the author of, "The Crafted Genius." It is a book about preparation, discipline and resilience. She, through her social media posts frequently discusses parenting. She often harps on what formal education fails to teach - emotional regulation, communication, financial management, loneliness and mental health.
She has indicated that writing, teaching and social service could be among the avenues she Explores next.
Though politics is another possibility being discussed - the proximity of the 2027 UP election adding to that speculation - she has said nothing to suggest that a political debut is imminent.
Divya Mittal's farewell note offers only one certainty. She may have surrendered the office through which she pursued her idea of public service. But she does not see herself as having surrendered the idea itself
She wrote, "The position may be gone. But the dream this country's soil gave me will not leave me."
Rajiv Srivastava & Arvind Chauhan
