Fifty-seven-year old Chitra Swaroop made history in Uttar Pradesh after she was appointed the first ever engineer-in-chief of the state's public works department by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Officials from the engineering department say that Swaroop would not have bagged the post if Mayawati was in power.
"With the former chief minister having pushed her plans to provide reservation in promotions to all scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, all others including upper castes and OBCs were bound to be left behind. The policy was planned in a manner that the positions of all state department heads would have gone only to scheduled castes," pointed out a senior engineer of the department, which looks after laying of all roads, highways and bridges across the sprawling state.
The Supreme Court on April 27
upheld the Allahabad high court's decision to scrap the policy of reservations in promotions introduced by the Mayawati government.
The Allahabad high court on January 4, 2011 had dubbed it "unconstitutional" and struck it down following at least 50 petitions by employees associations from across the state. Following this, a special leave petition was filed in the Supreme Court against the order by the Bahujan Samaj Party government.
"We are glad that the new chief minister decided to implement the SC court order without any delay, otherwise Swaroop would have never got this opportunity," said UP engineers association chief A A Farouqui. "Perhaps she is the first woman to head any civil engineering department across states," he added
Swaroop has been the engineer-in-chief (rural toads) for the past eight months in PWD.