BHUBANESWAR: If Itishree Pradhan was hounded for raising voice against sexual harassment at the hands of a school inspector, report of the administrative inquiry into her death has pointed out how an entire chain of the administration failed to respond to her distress calls.
So insensitive was the administration that Netrananda Dandasena, the school inspector who is accused of harassing her, was even given a promotion while he was on the run.
The report by senior IAS officer Rajesh Verma reveals that though Dandasena’s promotion was based on District Promotion Committee recommendation on November 29, 2012, inclusion of his name in the Government order on October 15, 2013 could have been avoided given the fact that he was an accused.
A Siksha Sahayak at Rayagada’s Tikri, Pradhan died in November last year, six days after being set afire by unidentified miscreants at her school.
The inquiry report, which was submitted to the Government on October 27, 2014, has pointed finger at 14 officials. It states that the then Collector SB Padhi did not give due attention to ensure security of life to the teacher. The response of the district administration to the grievance of such a serious nature cannot be treated as adequate.
“A better response was expected from the head of he administration when the whole country had witnessed massive protests following the Nirbhaya case a few months back,” it stated.
It also slammed the then SP Rajesh Pandit stating that no serious response was given by him. The seriousness of the threat to Itishree and her sense of helplessness should have evoked an empathetic feeling and the SP should have mobilised the whole police machinery to take prompt action.
The DSP of HRPC Santanu Mohanty discharged the duties in a routine manner, while SDPO of Rayagada Y Jagannath Rao’s action was perfunctory, the report stated, observing that slackness of the police administration was inexplicable. IIC of Tikri Police Station Sujit Kumar Say and ASI Muralidhar Pradhan have already been dismissed from service following the incident while the report indicted SI DS Pradhan.
Dharanidhar Behera, the then Tehsildar and Executive Magistrate of Kashipur sat on six prosecution reports filed by Tikri police while his dealing assistant Baibasua Suna was also pinned down for negligence.
The inquiry report has also revealed that the then District Social Welfare Officer Sanghamitra Kanungo, as convenor of District Level Complaints Committee, visited the school on August 24, 2013 but placed the report before the Collector on September 29, a month later.
Although the committee recommended Itishree’s transfer from Kashipur block as a special case, it failed to put her case properly.
The headmaster of Tikri UP School Chandrasekhar Panda, Cluster Resource Centre Coordinator Duryo Majhi and District Project Coordinator Laxmikant Behera all failed to respond to Itishree’s grievance calls.
The report also observed that the grievance petition of the teacher was endorsed by the then DG of Police Prakash Mishra on July 31, 2013. A more proactive response and strict instruction from him could have changed the course of events in the case, it added.