Andhra IAS officer accused of sexual harassment

 HYDERABAD(India), February16 2012: Bureaucrats in Andhra Pradesh appear to be hogging the limelight nowadays for all the wrong reasons.After a string of arrests and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) grilling them in corruption cases, the IAS fraternity in the state is now caught in a sexual harassment case involving a senior civil servant.A 1985 batch IAS officer V S Bhaskar, who is the Additional Director-General of the Unique ID Authority of India (UIDAI) (Aadhar), Hyderabad region, is in the eye of the storm following a case filed against him by a junior officer, alleging that he had tried to physically assault her.Following a petition filed by Padmaja, an IRS official also holding the rank of Additional Director General at UIDAI office here, the Hyderabad Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has ordered his transfer and repatriation to his parent cadre of Assam and
Meghalaya.Challenging the CAT order, Bhaskar moved the High Court which posted the matter for hearing on Thursday.In her petition before the CAT, the woman officer alleged that Bhaskar had been harassing her mentally for the last six months and also tried to physically assault her. She claimed that she was forced to approach the CAT after her petitions to several organisations at the government level went in vain.However, Bhaskar, in his petition before the court, denied the charge and claimed that his junior officer was only trying to gain sympathy taking advantage of her position in the administration.The case has come as a major embarrassment to the IAS fraternity which is already reeling under the impact of the arrest of two senior IAS officers — P Acharya and Y Srilakshmi — in two separate cases.