Joint director of social welfare suspended for '181' helpline job ad wrongly mentioning Hindi as criteria

CHENNAI: The state social welfare department on Monday suspended one of its joint directors for posting a wrong job notification affixing Hindi as one of the eligibility conditions for recruitment to the post of call responders in the ‘181’ helpline.

Referring to the notification posted by the joint director, Commissionerate of Social Welfare, on the www.tn.gov.in website to fill vacancies in '181' helpline, which is being operated from Chennai to support women in distress, state social welfare minister Geetha Jeevan on Monday said that it was wrongly notified that Hindi was criteria for recruitment to the post of call responders.

Stating that the notification was withdrawn as soon as it was brought to the notice of the Tamil Nadu government, the minister in a statement said that a fresh notification mentioning only Tamil and English as eligibility criteria was issued.

Also, the joint director who issued the wrong notification was immediately placed under suspension and disciplinary action initiated against him, the minister said, describing as ‘pitiable’ the politicisation of the issue by some people who were exploiting the wrong notification issued by an officer. “No one shall preach to us (the pride of) Tamil. People will not be deceived by it,” the minister added.