Pune: The National Scheduled Caste Commission (NSCC) has issued a show cause notice against the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) after one of their employees filed a complaint against three senior C-DAC officials for misconduct on Thursday. Sujit Thamke, who was working as a Public Relation Officer (PRO) at C-DAC, had filed a complaint against the three senior officials a few days ago.
“I was initially interviewed for the position of permanent employee. However, after selection, they hired me on a contract basis. For past 10 years, they did not give me any promotion. If at all I was not the appropriate candidate for the job, they should not have hired me in the first place. Moreover, according to government rules and procedures, a government company is allowed to put up three advertisements if the institution has not been able to find the right person for the permanent post. But C-DAC did not do so. There were other candidates looking for an opportunity but they zeroed in on me,” said Thamke.
Thamke also questioned why he was not terminated earlier if the institution was unhappy with his performance. “They could have terminated me in the first three years. If there was a flaw in my performance, why didn’t they sack me earlier? Instead, they allowed me to continue to work for 10 years,” said Thamke.
Thamke further said, “Initial five-six years went well. But for the past couple of years, they had started mentally harassing me. My salary was stopped without giving any reason, and then when questioned, the senior officers passed derogatory remarks against me.
Eventually, they terminated me from the job,” added Thamke. Thamke will be soon be filing an atrocity case against seniors of the department. However, officials of C-DAC have denied the allegations, stating that no kind of torture or harassment was inflicted against Thamke during his tenure. “First of all, Thamke wasn’t fit for the profile. C-DAC had put up an advertisement for the post where we were looking for the head of corporate communication with PG in Mass Communication and 12 years of experience. But he only had six years of experience, therefore we could not hire him for the permanent position.
He was hence hired on a contract basis,” said Rai Varghese, Director of Human Resource Department at C-DAC. The official further alleged that Thamke was a non-performing candidate.
“During his tenure at C-DAC, he was given an extension of contract thrice, and five counselling letters were issued to him asking him to improve his performance. However, he failed to correct himself. On January 2018, his contract got over, but his HOD asked for a three-month extension to which we agreed. But Thamke never responded to it, and instead absconded from office without any intimation for a month. He had not signed the extension letter as well,” said Varghese.
Under Article 338 of the Constitution of India, 1949, a special officer will investigate matters related to the safeguards provided for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes under this Constitution. The Commission expects that the necessary corrections will be made and a detailed report should be submitted to the Commission within 15 days. If C-DAC fails to complete the said procedure, strict action will be taken against them, reads the notice.
