Woman IAS officer not allowed to join havan at Goddess Shoolini’s temple

Tribune News Service

Solan, October 27

IAS officer Ritika Jindal, deputed as tehsildar at Solan, was stopped from participating in a havan held at Goddess Shoolini’s temple here on Saturday.

Jindal protested the denial of permission to participate in the havan and said it was a matter of woman’s respect.

She had gone to visit the temple to take stock of the arrangements and urged priests to allow her to participate in the havan. They argued that no woman had been permitted to participate in the havan. Goddess Shoolini is the ruling deity of the area.

Jindal said there was a need to change such thinking where women were discriminated against and as a woman, she would stand for equality. She had asserted that she is a woman first and an officer later.

Jindal, who is a native of Moga in Punjab, is a 2018 batch IAS officer. It was incidentally the last day of her posting at Solan and has now joined at Nalagarh in the same capacity.