Barely a month after District Collector K. Rajamani suspended the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Karamadai on sexual harassment charges, the District Administration on Wednesday placed the secretary of Jadayampalayam panchayat Mohan Kumar under suspension for allegedly harassing a woman assistant whom he appointed illegally.
A senior official with the District Administration said the action was taken on two grounds -- for appointing a woman as assistant by illegally creating a post and allegedly harassing her.
“The BDO of Karamadai has served the suspension order to the panchayat secretary. The BDO will conduct an inquiry into the allegations levelled against the panchayat secretary and submit a report to District Collector,” the official said.
The Collector had received a complaint from the woman assistant who alleged that Kumar made attempts to harass her. The complaint was forwarded to Karamadai BDO, who conducted a preliminary inquiry, following which Kumar was suspended.
“The initial inquiry conducted by the BDO found that Kumar had appointed the woman as his assistant illegally and the post does not exist. It also found that he had made harassment attempts on the woman,” said the official.
The official added that illegal appointments and creation of non-existent posts in panchayat and town panchayat levels have come to the attention of the District Collector, who has decided to check the same in the coming days.
The District Administration has also received specific information that a few officials in the local self governing bodies run ‘parallel offices’ where they appoint assistants and collect money for issuing certificates like community certificate.
A new BDO was appointed for Karamadai after Ravichandran who helmed the post earlier was suspended in April for alleged sexual harassment of women staff.
