Just next door to the Goa Human Rights Commission is the office of the Inspector General of Prisons. Outside this office is a table with a person posted to record with a thermal gun the body temperature of all visitors to that office. At all government offices, it is a peon who is assigned this simple and routine job. But shockingly here the task has been given to an official of the rank of Senior Assistant Superintendent of Prisons, Chandrakant Harijan.
His current rank is equivalent to a DySP in the Goa Police. Is it not a waste of public funds that a senior official who has served the department for 24 long years has been kept there seated all day with a thermal gun? This very unassuming official has been doing this very menial task assigned to him diligently and without complaint. Are the authorities taking advantage that he hails from the deprived community which had been enslaved for ages? Using Harijan to perform this simple, monotonous and routine task is clearly a waste of his years of experience in the department. Through no fault of his own, he is being used as a square peg in a round hole. Clearly, it is a violation of his basic human rights not to be treated appropriately and without due care.
It is an irony that this blatant violation of human rights of Chandrakant Harijan is going on next door to the GHRC. Will the Chief Secretary Parimal Rai please look into this tormenting matter and swiftly rectify this unacceptable anomaly which is an act of barefaced cruelty. Chandrakant Harijan’s self-respect and self-esteem must be restored.
