Haldwani: Meet Vandana Singh, Nainital DM who is trying to defuse violence

Communal tensions gripped Uttarakhand's Haldwani since Thursday evening as a mob of rioters attacked the municipal corporation officials during the demolition of an “illegally built” madrasa in Banbhoolpura. According to the police, two people lost their lives in the violence, while a hundred others were left injured.

Nainital district magistrate Vandana Singh, who is overseeing the communal violence case, said the attack was “preplanned and unprovoked”. Addressing the media on Friday, Vandana Singh said the accused had collected stones on the rooftops of houses before the attack began.

Also read: Curfew in Haldwani locality after communal tension over demolition of madrasa

“The attackers used petrol bombs, fired at the Banbhulpura police station, and set the vehicles on fire. They collected stones on the rooftops before the attack…the violence was pre-planned…The mob did not try to save the structure, they just attacked the state machinery and state symbols,” she said. However, Vandana Singh claimed that the violence was, in fact, not communal, adding that there was no particular community that retaliated to the attack.

Who is Vandana Singh?

1. Vandana Singh is a 2012-batch IAS officer of the Uttarakhand cadre.
2. A resident of Haryana's Nasrullagarh village, Vandana Singh studied Sanskrit honors from Kanya Gurukul Bhiwani and then LLB from BR Ambedkar University, Agra. Some reports claim that she did distance education due to a lack of support from her family to go to college.
3. At the age of 24 in 2012, Vandana Singh achieved eighth rank in the UPSC in her first attempt, realising her dream of becoming an IAS officer. Soon after, she was appointed as the chief development officer of Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand - becoming the first woman CDO of the district.
4. According to reports, between 2017 and 2020, Vandana Singh also served as the brand ambassador of the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign.
5. In 2020, Vandana Singh was appointed as the DM of Rudraprayag and then the DM of Almora in 2021. She has been serving as the DM of Nainital since May 17, 2023.