The newly posted District Magistrate (DM) and Senior Superintendent of  Police (SSP) took charge of the Ghaziabad district on Saturday.

The 2003 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Ministi S took over the charge as the District Magistrate of Ghaziabad from Nidhi Kesrawani who has been posted as the Special Secretary of Science and Technology department.

Hailing from Kerala, she was serving as Special Secretary with the Home Department of Uttar Pradesh Government before being posted as DM of Ghaziabad. Known as a no-nonsense officer, she had cancelled over 70 arms licenses and ordered the closure of some 100 arms dealers shops during her posting as DM of Mainpuri.

Her daring action had then irked the Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and he made it known during a rally in his home turf.

The arms shops that she had shut belonged to influential people connected with the SP and her action had riled them but Ministi S stood her ground as the DM of Mainpuri.

After taking over charge, the DM in her first interaction with the media, she said her focus would be to strengthen society by educating the children and improving the work culture through transparency in the public interest.

The 2006 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Hari Narayan Singh who took over the reins of the district police from Deepak Kumar said he would seek the help from the media to reach out to the downtrodden sections of society.

Singh who had served in the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Noida and SP City Noida, said he knows the district and issues faced by the people.

Singh had also headed Rae Bareilly, Bijnore, Kanpur districts as SSP and was posted as the incharge of elections at DGP headquarters. “My focus would be to serve the citizens with dedication, honesty and transparency”, the SSP emphasised.