Call centre sex row piles pressure on Chandy

By Ashraf Padanna/ThiruvananthapuramKerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who is facing criticism over his office links to an investment scam, has landed in yet another controversy.This time, the 24X7 call centre of chief minister’s public grievance redressal cell, which receives thousands of calls from citizens every day, is under a cloud after an employee allegedly sought sexual favours from a woman caller seeking a transfer.According to the woman - a government employee who was seeking transfer from Palakkad to her native Kollam district - K P Girish Kumar, after recording her petition, contacted her several times.The friendship continued till Kumar asked her to come to the state capital - with a promise to arranging a meeting with the chief minister. In return he demanded the woman either agree to his marriage proposal or for sexual favours.After the woman began to avoid Kumar’s calls, he gave her number to two other friends who made attempts to convince her to give in to his demands.Kumar is alleged to have also tried contacting her through Internet calls, following which the woman e-mailed her complaint to the chief minister.Later, the woman addressed television channels alleging that the chief minister’s office (CMO) had ignored her complaint. With the media taking up the issue, the CMO released a statement stating that Kumar, a temporary hand, had been kept away from the office immediately after receiving the complaint.A departmental inquiry was initiated and his service terminated on Wednesday on the basis of a report from the general administration secretary.The CMO also released a copy of the government order.Shockingly, the statement identified the women complainant violating Supreme Court directives.The chief minister’s call centre was opened soon after he assumed power two years ago. It is part of his internationally acclaimed transparency initiative. The centre receives nearly half a million complaints a month which are forwarded to the concerned departments. Citizens can also lodge their grievances through its portal, cmcc.kerala.gov.in, track their complaints online and post feedbacks.It also ensures that the action-taken-report is sent to the complainant through the ePost service of India Post.The chief minister had recently sacked one of his personal assistant, Tenny Joppan, gunman Salim Raj and the state public relations director A Firoz for their alleged links with a couple facing charges of swindling Rs67.2mn in 29 cases registered by the police since 2006. The probe team headed by additional director general of police (ADGP) A Hemachandran, which was grilling the couple -  Biju Radhakrishnan and Saritha S Nair - for the past three days, questioned Jikkumon Jacob, another personal assistant to Chandy, and Salim Raj yesterday.The issue has rocked the Kerala Assembly for the past four days and the opposition leaders had on Thursday met Governor Nikhil Kumar urging him to sack Chandy.Meanwhile, in New Delhi, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) demanded Chandy to quit and face a judicial probe.