Bhubaneswar, April 6: The sexual abuse charges made against former Speaker Maheswar Mohanty have pushed the government to constitute a committee to hear out harassment cases at workplaces.

The Naveen Patnaik government has also initiated processes to set up such a panel in the Assembly and district offices. Earlier, there was a state-level committee to hear out grievances, but its term expired in January 2006, while the Assembly never had such committees. The state-level panel had been lying in limbo till recently.

The government felt the necessity to revive the committee recently, reportedly after the Mohanty case and a reconstituted seven-member panel was notified only on Friday. Senior IAS officer and co-operation secretary Madhur Sarangi will head the reconstituted committee, which will hear complaints at work places lodged by employees of the government and public sector undertakings, a senior official of the women and child development department said.

Complaint boxes would be set up in all departments in the secretariat and in the chambers of heads of all department buildings and confidentiality will be strictly maintained, she said. An Oriya booklet about the rules of decorum at workplaces and legal laws protecting the women would be circulated among women, the official added.

Assembly secretary K.C. Barik said that the panel would be constituted soon. A circular has also been issued to all the collectors to set up similar committees in all government offices at the district level. The district collectors have been asked to send monthly status reports regarding the number of complaints received, disposed of and the action taken.

Five interrogated

Five employees of the Assembly, one of them a retired official, were interrogated today in connection with the harassment slur against Mohanty.

The five, including chief marshal P.K. Patra, chief security officer R.N. Pradhan, former deputy secretary M.S. Rath, driver Raghunath Das and peon Trilochan Sethi, who were interrogated in the Mahila police station, reportedly denied of involvement in the controversy.

Complainant Gayatri Panda had alleged that Patra had asked her to meet Mohanty “in private”, while Pradhan had made some inappropriate gestures at her.

“We interrogated the employees named by the victim and recorded their statements. Further investigation is in process,” said Bilasini Nayak, inspector of Mahila police station. The police are expected to interrogate a few more.