Times
of India: Bhubaneswar: Friday, 13 March 2015.
The Congress
on Thursday demanded the state government to clarify what action it has taken
on the purported complaint made by a senior bureaucrat's wife that her husband
was having an extra-marital affair with a lady IAS officer and physically and
mentally torturing her.
Raising the
issue in the assembly, Congress chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati said in
December the woman lodged a complaint with the State Commission for Women and
also submitted a written complaint against her husband in the chief minister's
grievance cell.
"The IAS
officer's wife wrote that her husband subjected her to physical and mental
harassment," he said during zero hour.
"She had
told the chief minister that she apprehended threat to her life from the
additional chief secretary rank officer, sought security for self and demanded
immediate action against her husband," Bahinipati said.
He also
alleged that the woman suspects that her husband could be leaking
"confidential information" related to the state to his girlfriend.
He later told
mediapersons that the woman, who took voluntary retirement from her job as
reader in the government college in 2007, had shifted to a separate flat as she
was not able to bear the alleged physical and mental torture.
While the
Congress leader did not divulge the name of the officer and his wife,
speculation is rife in government circles that the IAS officer in question is
heading a key government department and is his alleged girlfriend is a
Delhi-based bureaucrat.
Earlier this
week, the officer's wife sought information, through the RTI Act, from the
state government about the action taken on her petition to the chief minister.
The woman and her husband has not made any public statement on the matter.
Ruling BJD
leaders sought to brush aside the issue as a "personal matter of the
officer". "There are several important issues demanding the
assembly's attention. Raising such a personal issue in the house is not in good
taste," said BJD MLA and party spokesperson Sashi Bhusan Behera. BJP legislature
party leader Basanta Panda said, "The allegation that confidential
information could have been leaked raises concern."
Leader of
opposition Narasingha Mishra described the issue as "important" and
said, "The woman had asked for security, but the government has not provided
it to her. The CM (also the home minister) should clarify who is the officer,
whether the allegations are true and what has the government done on this
issue."