By Vivek Shukla
Sonia Meena, a 2013 batch IAS officer, who hails from Rajasthan's Sawai Madhopur district, becomes the first collector of Mauganj district, which is the 53rd district of Madhya Pradesh, formed today after separation from Rewa.
This district has been formed under sub-section of section 13 of the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code, 1959 (No. 20 of 1959).
The revenue department's order states that the district headquarters of Mauganj will be the city of Mauganj. Three tehsils of Rewa district, namely Mauganj, Hanumana and Naigarhi have been included in Mauganj district.
Meena, known to be a bold officer, was posted as Director, Tribal Affairs and Managing Director SC/ST Development, has been posted as interim Collector till further orders of the newly created district.
Who is Sonia Meena
Sonia Meena is daughter of Teeka Ram Meena, who is a retired 1988 batch IAS of Kerala cadre. Sonia Meena is an alumnus of Lady Sriram College and JNU Delhi. She achieved 36th rank in IAS and has been quite active on social media. She has more than 13,000 followers on Instagram.
Earlier Sonia Meena had served as collector of Anuppur district where she hit the headlines when the state government transferred Superintendent of Police Akhil Kumar Patel on her complaint. It is said that Patel was not getting along well with Sonia Meena, who complained that Patel was not behaving properly with his subordinates. Following that, Patel was transferred.
Action against mining mafia
Sonia Meena hogged the limelight in 2017 when she received death threats from mining mafia while serving as additional district magistrate and chief executive officer of zila panchayat Umaria district. The background of the threat was related to her previous posting as a sub-divisional magistrate in Chhatarpur district's Rajnagar area.
Meena had taken action against illegal sand mining following the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's directions. Following the raids, mining mafia Arjun Singh Bundela was arrested, who was allegedly threatening Sonia Meena. The government had then provided Meena the additional security.
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