Peon harassment case
SHILLONG: Director of Soil and Water Conservation, D. Langstieh, has finally broken his silence over the alleged harassment of an orderly peon and said the allegations were made to “tarnish his image”.
In a statement issued on Monday, Langstieh said the orderly peon was appointed on October 15, 2015, after a written examination and personal interview. She joined her duty on October 30 in the same year.
Before she started her work, Langstieh had advised her to bring her relatives so that he could explain the nature of work and what was expected of her, said the director.
“On October 31, 2015, her relatives came and it was explained to them that the duty of the orderly peon is at the official residence of the officer and that the works involve domestic chores. The meeting with the relatives was very cordial. After this, she attended duty during the day,” he said.
Denying all allegations of harassment, Langstieh said during the job interview, all candidates were informed about the nature of duty of an orderly peon and that the woman in question also readily agreed but at present she is feigning ignorance.
He said the orderly peon then stopped attending duties at the residence and he being pre-occupied with other matters kept the matter in abeyance.
“In the wake of this development, it is felt that disbursing salary for a non-performing staff is detrimental to the working atmosphere in the department, and therefore, it was on this basis that her pay was withheld and later on, she was transferred to Conservation Training Institute, Byrnihat, on November 8, 2016,” he said.
The director added that as per practice, errant staff are subjected to disciplinary measures and the employee in question is no exception and therefore she was given mild corrective measures to discipline and correct her behaviour and performance.
Earlier, the orderly peon had lodged a petition to the Principal Secretary of the Soil and Water Conservation Department and a reply to the petition was also made. Also, the treasury was advised to release her salary.
However, Langstieh said the action was taken against the orderly peon with the intention of “maintaining discipline in office and to correct the behaviour of the errant staff and not as alleged by her in the media”.
“All her allegations are baseless, devoid of truth and done with the intention of tarnishing my image,” he added.
The orderly peon had alleged harassment by Langstieh at his quarter as she was assigned non-official work there.
The woman alleged that Langstieh tasked her with non-official work, like washing and ironing clothes and mopping every day except Sundays. She had also alleged that the director often insisted that she spent the night at his residence.