Agartala, Nov. 27: A spurt in sex-related crimes has emerged as a major threat to the efficient functioning of the state administration.
A deputy collector and magistrate (DCM) was recently caught having issued a fake voter identity card to a female colleague, who accompanied him on a pleasure trip outside the state. Official sources in the office of the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) said the DCM, Pintu Lal Das, got a fake voter ID card issued in favour of his female colleague from the election section of the SDM office early this month and took her on a trip outside the state.
“This was done to facilitate their stay together in a hotel room in Calcutta or any other city they may have visited together. This was done because hotels now insist on identity proofs from guests,” a source said.
The matter drew the attention of the SDM and the DM after an anonymous complaint had been made and was found to be true. “Yesterday the DM (West) Kiran Gittye met revenue commissioner Swapan Saha and briefed him about this. The matter is being further inquired into and action will follow,” a source said. The SDM (Sadar) Manik Lal Das refused to comment on the issue saying it would be premature to go public before the completion of the ongoing investigation.
Highly placed sources in the administration said “over-politicisation of the administration” and lack of political will to enforce discipline was wreaking havoc on the efficiency of the administration.
In the year 2010, Sharvari Chakma, 37, personal assistant to B.K. Roy, commissioner of the co-operative department, committed suicide allegedly because of coercion she had been subjected to for refusing to have any illicit relationship with her boss. She had earlier complained in writing to the then chief secretary Shashi Prakash but there was no succour. After her death sparked a statewide furore, the state government constituted a judicial inquiry commission headed by retired high court Justice P.K. Sarkar, a known CPM sympathiser, who exonerated Roy.
In another incident, in December 2007, the then joint secretary (finance), M.K. Sen was physically assaulted by a section of employees for putting pressure on a female clerk Nilima Roy for establishing an illicit relationship with him. “Sen used to call her in his chamber on some pretext or the other and make advances upon her. He was also using coercive methods but on the crucial day the lady came out weeping and complained to her colleagues. Things then got out of hand,” said Haripada Sutradhar, former secretary of the Mahakaran Karmachari Samity.
Interestingly, the inquiry ordered by the state government found neither M.K. Sen nor Nilima Roy and her colleagues, who had assaulted the joint secretary, guilty of any offence. Sutradhar said such things happen daily but only few incidents come to light.
In 2011, the then chief secretary R.K. Mathur had shifted several female personal assistants of commissioner-level officers to restore discipline and improve efficiency in the upper echelons of the administration.
“This had been done at the behest of the chief minister himself but the commissioners, having illicit liaisons with their personal assistants, managed to dodge the shifting, granting brief sabbaticals to their assistants,” said a senior official of the secretarial administration.
