TERI has been mired in a major controversy due to alleged sexual harassment charges against former Director General RK Pachauri. (AFP file photo)
A day after taking charge at the environment environmental watchdog TERI, its new Chairman Ashok Chawla today said his immediate priority would be to steer away the organisation from the present period of stress.
Amid a public outcry over return of RK Pachauri as TERI's Executive Vice Chairman despite sexual harassment allegations against him, its Governing Council last evening asked him to go on an indefinite leave from all positions at the institute.
Besides, TERI has also appointed Mr Chawla, a career bureaucrat a former finance secretary who last month retired as chief of fair trade regulator Competition Commission, as the new Chairman of its Governing Council.
Stating that TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) would soon put in place an external ombudsman to look into the complaints of staff members, 65-year-old Chawla said the immediate priority is to steer the institution out of its present stress.
"I am absolutely new to the organisation (TERI)... The organisation has a huge international reputation and credibility in terms of the work that it does," Mr Chawla said.
"So the objective will be that one sort of steers it away from the present period of stress through which the organisation is going through for different reasons," Mr Chawla told Press Trust of India.
Mr Chawla said he has had preliminary discussion with Teri Director General Ajay Mathur on having an external ombudsman to help address issues faced by employees.
Mr Mathur has replaced Mr Pachauri as the Director General and will operate with full executive powers. This will strip Mr Pachauri of any executive powers he may have enjoyed when he was appointed executive vice chairman earlier this week.
"We will try to institutionalise an arrangement where we will bring in an external ombudsman to whom employees who are in difficult situations of any kind can raise that issue. Then the external ombudsman can go through it and advice the management on what are the facts and what needs to be done," Mr Chawla said.
He emphasised this would be an area of priority at this point of time.
When asked about Pachauri's future at TERI, since he is only on leave, Mr Chawla said the institute's governing council is looking at the developments which is a sub judice matter.