External ombudsman to look into TERI staff complaints: Chawla

As TERI seeks to safeguard its "credibility" in the wake of controversies surrounding founder R K Pachauri, new Chairman Ashok Chawla today said an external ombudsman would be put in place at the institution to address complaints of staff members unhappy with internal processes.
Chawla, who was today appointed as the new Chairman of the governing council of TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) in an apparent damage-control move, said if an employee, whether male or female, "rings the bell" of the Omdudsman and the matter can be thereafter taken to higher authorities.
The Institute has been mired in a major controversy due to alleged sexual harassment charges against Pachauri, who had to proceed on "leave" from TERI, its governing council as well as the university.

While Pachauri has been replaced as DG of the institute, it has been facing flak after it decided to create a new position of Executive Vice Chairman for him.
Seeking to assuage the concerns, TERI Governing Council today decided that Pachauri would go on leave till further review due to "sub-judice" nature of the matter and also appointed Chawla, former Chairman of Competition Commission and former Finance Secretary, as its Chairman.
Soon after his appointment, Chawla said, "I am sure that the system will operate in a manner that those who have done something wrong, he is called to account and more importantly we put in place a system where there are external Ombudsman.

"So if somebody is unhappy with the internal process, either a male or female employee, if something wrong is going on, they can ring the bell and the Ombudsman can then take notice who will be an external player and therefore in a position to adjudicate on that matter and bring it to the attention of higher authority," he said.

Asked why the organisation had to wait for a week to force Pachauri into going on leave he said he would not like to comment on that matter, but added that it was important that the credibility of the organisation is not allowed to decline.

"That's not an issue on which I am going to comment. The fact of the matter is that now the landscape has been settled, the architecture is in place. The important thing at this point is to ensure the credibility and integrity of this very important institution is not allowed to suffer and decline," he said.
Chawla's appointment came after B V Sreekantan resigned in the midst of mounting outrage over the elevation of Pachauri facing a swirl of sexual harassment allegations.