The city government’s 181 helpline head Khadija Farooqui has written to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal that officers started harassing her after she raised the issue of financial irregularities in her
The city government’s 181 helpline head Khadija Farooqui has written to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal that officers started harassing her after she raised the issue of financial irregularities in her department with her director. Ms Farooqui, who had been served a showcause notice to explain why she was not regularly maintaining her biometric attendance, has sought the Mr Kejriwal’s intervention into the contentious matter.
In her letter to Mr Kejriwal, Ms Farooqui said she was called by former chief minister Sheila Dikshit to her residence on January 1, 2013 for a meeting with senior officials of the city government, including chief secretary, additional solicitor-general and the Delhi Commission for Women chairperson to take charge of 181 helpline for women in distress in Delhi. “I accepted this responsibility because handling violence was my expertise and to establish a helpline was my dream.” The helpline was set up after December 6, 2012 Nirbhaya rape.
Ms Farooqui said even after she fell ill in November, she had been working from her hospital room. “Dear Sir, since the time I brought up few financial irregularities to the director’s notice — I have been facing lots of issues by the department. On 27 April, on an issue of mishandling of server, I forwarded the complaint to director DWCD and an inquiry was initiated, but no report has come till today. The delay escalated the situation and led to unfortunate incident of attempt to suicide by Anam on May 13. An inquiry was initiated by your office, but still no report has come and nobody from the director’s office nor your office gave any response to my pleas and I was not given fair chance to give my version,” the letter said.
Ms Farooqui alleged that since her complaint an environment of hostility has been prevailing in the 181 office. “After the May 13 incident, many of my team members are neither listening to my instructions nor of my supervisors. When our salaries came in June 2015, we realised that our salaries have been deducted.” Ms Farooqui said there were many vacancies for a long time in the call centre and with acute shortage of staff in comparison to the number of calls landing on 181 has led to a more difficult situation.
“If you (Mr Kejriwal) and government feels I am not the right choice for this job please bring someone else in my space so that I can hand over the work properly to him/her and move out peacefully,” Ms Farooqui said.
