Thiruvananthapuram: A dalit employee at Secretariat has complained to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan about the constant harassment he is facing at the hands of a senior IAS officer in General Administration Department (GAD). Devadas, an attender with the GAD, lodged the complaint against GAD principal secretary Biswanath Sinha. The attender alleged that Sinha makes him remove food waste from his table after lunch, asks him to clean the food waste from his tiffin box and sometimes he sprinkles water on the table and asks him to clean it up.
The staffer who is an ITI graduate and is currently pursuing BA Sociology, alleged that he was finding it difficult to cope with the stress and humiliation by the IAS officer. He said the officer also had the habit of tearing paper, throwing all around the floor and asking him to clean up the room. On several days, Sinha has made him sit in office for late hours.
Though Devdas lodged a written compliant with the chief minsters’ office on Friday, the CMO was yet to respond to his plaint. Meanwhile, Sinha told some regional news channels that the allegatoins against him were baseless. He said the chief minister’s office had not sought any explanation from him on the matter.
Meanwhile, secretariat staff associations have expressed solidarity with the attender. The representatives of staff associations plan to meet chief minister on Monday and submit a memorandum detailing the various kinds of harassments faced by employees at the hands of senior IAS officers.
The employees’ trade union leaders alleged many officers treat the last grade employees with contempt. They sought immediate intervention of chief minister and chief secretary to check the harassment of staff. The staff associations were up in arms against Sinha for issuing show cause notices to late comer employees. Thy had accused the officer of acting with a vindictive attitude.
