SHILLONG: A woman working as orderly peon attached with the Director of Soil and Water Conservation in the city alleged harassment by her boss at his quarter as she was assigned non-official work there.
The woman alleged that Director D. Langstieh tasked her with non-official work, like washing and ironing clothes and mopping, in his quarter every day except Sundays. In a letter to the Principal Secretary and the Under Secretary of the department, the woman said, “I did not realise that the duties and the works assigned to me were not the work of the orderly peon as I was directed from the office that these were duties assigned to orderly peon.”
She further alleged that Langstieh would often insist that she spent the night at his residence. Since her house is not far from the official quarter, she refused and gauged that his intention was not good.
The woman’s refusal offended Langstieh who allegedly withheld her salary for the last six months. She criticised Langstieh for alleged sexual harassment of female employees and said the director was annoyed because she did not stay at his residence. She alleged that the director went to the extent of transferring her to the office of the Joint Director of Soil and Water Conservation, Research and Training Conservation Institute, in Byrnihat and alleged personal vengeance.
“There is no arrangement for me to stay but the director had done it just to cause inconvenience to me since I did not succumb to the pressure,” she stated.
In this connection, the lady intended to move the court to get a stay order passed by the director.
Following her transfer to Byrnihat, she claimed her grandmother got depressed and suffered a stroke and is lodged in critical care unit.
When contacted, Langstieh denied the allegations and called the woman an ‘irregular’ worker.
