Women’s panel takes note of ‘sexual harassment’ in Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh

VIJAYAWADA:  Responding to the media reports on the alleged sexual harassment at work place in Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP), the State Women commission chairperson Vasireddy Padma said that women’s body has taken up the issue seriously pertaining to the inconvenience caused to the women employees in the department.

She further said that the commission has taken up the issue as a suo motu case and has written to the Principal secretary (Sports and Youth Services) expressing willingness to participate in the inquiry being carried out by the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC).

In an official release on Thursday, Padma said that the commission came to know that three officials of various ranks working in the SAAP were allegedly causing inconvenience in the workplace and forcing the women employees to accept their sexual demands.

The commission also found that they threatened women employees of losing their jobs if their demands weren’t met. “Based on the information obtained from media reports, I wrote a letter to the principal secretary to take stringent action against the officials by conducting a thorough probe by ICC and requested them to take Commission members into consideration in the process of investigation. Those found guilty will be punished under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act,” she said.

She further said the commission did not receive any complaints from women employees so far and asked them to lodge their grievances to the commission if any.“The commission also requested the principal to implement Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) at Workplace Act strictly in SAAP,” she informed.