The tussle between women 181 helpline staff and the AAP-led Delhi Government appears to have aggravated further as the entrance of all the temporary staff of the helpline department being headed by Khadija Farooqui was restricted into the Player’s Building in Delhi Secretariat on Wednesday.
Farooqui, along with other social activists, staged protest against the Delhi Government in front of Player’s Building as the latter issued directions to not allow any staff of women 181 helpline to enter premises.
In the meantime, two women staff on Tuesday midnight called up the Delhi Police when they were stopped from entering the premises. The Deputy Commissioner of Police personally had to intervene so that they can enter into their office.
“First, we were not allowed to enter the office, now when we are doing our job, the city Government is not allowing our colleagues for our replacement. We work in three shifts. They have been stopped outside the secretariat and we can’t leave the helpline number as we receive around 500 to 700 distress calls in a day,” said one of the staff.
Sources said the AAP Government has asked other Non Government Organisation members to remain on standby and when Farooqui’s staff quit the premises, they could take over the helpline.
Refuting claims of Farooqui, a senior Government official said they had asked Farooqui to discontinue after there were several complaints against her and her team. The official also claimed that Farooqui had resigned and she has no right to come inside the Delhi Secretariat. But Farooqui alleged that the Government started traumatising them when she wrote to Kejriwal about the Government officers harassing her when she brought out the issue of financial irregularities in her department to the notice of the director.
The Government has also served Farooqui a show-cause notice last week to explain why she was not regularly maintaining her biometric attendance in her office. Immediately after that she had sought Kejriwal’s intervention into the contentious matter.
In her letter to Kejriwal, she wrote, “Since I raised the issue of a few financial irregularities with directors, I have been facing lots of issues by the department.” It is pertinent to mention that when there were uproar across the country and Kejriwal and his team of India Against Corruption took to the streets seeking justice and demanding a women helpline numbers exclusively for women and young girls, then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit gave the task to set up and operate the helpline number to Farooqui and her team.
When the AAP Government came to power, the department was shifted from Chief Minister’s Office to the Women and Child Development Department and for a few months Farooqui and her team were not given salaries. Now, the AAP Government wants to bring these women helpline number under the Delhi Commission for Women Chairperson Swati Maliwal.
A senior Government officer said, “The AAP Government wants to remove all the previous regime members. And with this intention, they have terminated Farooqui and her team. It is getting murkier”