Kerala Govt to examine sexual harassment of women staff

Kerala government today said it was ready to examine seriously a complaint of sexual harassment of women in theExcise Department.

"We are not approaching the matter lightly". The State Human Rights Commission itself had asked the Excise Commissioner to file a report on the matter within three days, Excise Minister T P Ramakrishnan told the Assembly.

Whether the complaint was true or false has to be examined and without that it was not possible to come to a conclusion on the charges, he said.

The Congress-led UDF Opposition brought to the notice of the Assembly the complaint of sexual harassment in the excise department and wanted a probe by a senior woman IPS officer into the charges.

Taking up the matter as a submission, opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said an anonymous complaint has been received by the State Human Rights Commission and Kerala Women's Commission on different types of harassment.

Even sexual harassment of the women staff at the Excise Range Offices in the state has been mentioned, he said.

It was also stated in the complaint that they (complainants) were afraid to disclose their names as they fear further intimidation from senior male colleagues, Chennithala said.

It was pointed out that only two or three women staff would be in the Range Offices. The senior male officers even used to call them at night in the pretext of going for raids.

Women staff have to face different types of misconduct from male employees. On some occasions they would be in an inebriated condition, Chennithala said quoting the complaint.

"I do not want to read all the contents of the complaint in the House. The issues raised in the complaint is very serious and it should be probed by a senior IPS woman officer. I am handing over the copy of the complaint to the Chief Minister for action, Chennithala said.

Replying on the matter, Ramakrishnan said the government was ready to examine the matter seriously.The Human Rights Commission itself had asked the Excise Commissioner to file a report on the issue within three days, he said.

"We are not approaching the matter lightly", he said.

Asked about the logic of probe being conducted by the Excise Commissioner on the charges of employees of same department, Ramakrishnan said the complaint did not mention anything against the Commissioner and it has only praised him.

The minister said that neither his office nor Chief Minister's office received a complaint on the allegations.

The Excise Commissioner received the complaint forwarded by the Human Rights Commission, he said.

Referring to demand for a probe by an IPS woman officer into the complaint, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the matter would be discussed with Excise Commissioner Rishi Raj Singh and will take a decision.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)