New Delhi, Jul 17 (PTI) The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has constituted a fresh panel to address complaints related to sexual harassment at workplace, officials said.

The move comes nearly two months after the new unified civic entity came into being on May 22.

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After the unification of three erstwhile corporations, Municipal Corporation of Delhi has constituted a fresh sexual harassment complaint committee for redressal of complaints related to sexual harassment, the MCD said in a statement.

The corporation has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment at workplace, it said.

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Chief Architect Neelam Arora has been appointed as the chairperson of this committee, and deputy director hospital, administration, Alka Gupta, law officer Surendra Kumar, deputy director (education) Seema Sharma and one woman member from an NGO, are members of the committee, the statement said.

The woman member of an NGO will be drawn from the panel available with the chairperson as and when cases are referred to the committee, it said.

The objective of this committee is to redress sexual harassment complaints of women employees at their work place on a priority basis, and to take necessary action to provide justice to the complainants, it added.

"Deputy commissioner of all zones are also directed to constitute zonal or sub-committee under their jurisdiction. In the zonal/sub-committee, there shall be not less than four members including the presiding officer.

"The presiding officer of the Committee shall be a woman employee of a senior level in the zone. At least one-half of the total members so nominated, shall be women," the civic body said.

Appropriate procedure will be adopted for disposal of complaints regarding sexual harassment cases. The complainant should register her complaint before the committee at the earliest point of time, and in any case within 15 days from the date of occurrence of the alleged incident, it said.

The committee shall take immediate action to get the matter investigated discreetly or hold an inquiry, if any, and will submit its recommendations to the head of the organisation for appropriate action, including penalty if any, to be imposed, it added.

Redressal of sexual harassment-related complaints of women employees at work place will be ensured on a priority basis, it said.

The unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had formally come into existence on May 22 with IAS officers Ashwani Kumar and Gyanesh Bharti assuming charge as the new civic body's special officer and commissioner, respectively.

The MCD was trifurcated in 2012 during Sheila Dikshit's tenure as the chief minister. It is now reunified by merging three civic bodies — North, South and East municipal corporations or NDMC, SDMC and EDMC.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)