Post Pachauri case, TERI reaches out to staff

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has asked one of its senior most executives to talk to the organisation’s staffers confidentially to know their concerns about the institution, which is under scanner due to multiple allegations of sexual harassment against its former boss R K Pachauri.

This has been announced on Monday by the new TERI management comprising the governing council chairman Ashok Chawla and director general Ajay Mathur, who spoke to TERI employees.

Energy specialist Veena Joshi, who is associated with TERI since 1984, would seek inputs in a confidential manner from colleagues in all TERI locations to identify and prioritise their concerns and suggestions on process improvements within the organisation, says a TERI statement. “We want to ensure that the workplace concerns of all employees are heard and addressed in a manner that respects them and helps the Institute to develop robust and transparent processes,” said Chawla, who was appointed as the new chairman of the TERI governing council last week.

The not-for-profit organisation with 1,200 workers and five regional centres at Bengaluru, Goa, Guwahati, Mumbai and Nainital was headed by Pachauri for three decades, during which he was also became the chairperson of the UN Inter-governmental panel on climate change (IPCC).

Pachauri now faces two allegations of sexual harassment by two former TERI employees and one of the allegations is being heard by the Delhi High Court.