New Delhi: Bihar IAS officer Harjot Kaur, who courted controversy for her snarky reply to a girl who asked her about the possibility of the government providing sanitary pads at affordable prices, expressed regret over her remarks on Thursday.
“I express regret if my words hurt any girl's sentiments. I didn't intend to humiliate anyone or hurt anyone's sentiments,” news agency ANI quoted Kaur as saying.
Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hinted that action may be taken against Kaur whose indiscretion during the recent interaction with school girls has caused a major embarrassment for his government.
“Orders are in place to inquire into the issue which I learnt about through newspapers. We are committed to providing all assistance to the state's women. If the IAS officer's behaviour is found to be against that spirit, action will be taken,” Kumar said.
Harjot Kaur, who is the managing director of Bihar Women Development Corporation, during a workshop on Wednesday had said, “Today you are asking for sanitary pads, tomorrow you will ask for condoms.”
The exchange of words took place at workshop ‘Sashakt Beti, Samriddh Bihar’ with a tagline ‘Towards enhancing the value of girls’.
The video of the conversation in Hindi, that has gone viral on the social media, starts when a girl student asked if the government could provide sanitary pads to them for Rs 20-30, to which Kaur gave a snarky reply. She said, “Tomorrow you'll say the government can give jeans too. And why not some beautiful shoes after that? You will eventually expect the government to give you family planning methods, condoms, too.”
Meanwhile, the student, who had asked her about the sanitary pad, said, “My question (on sanitary pads) wasn't wrong. They aren't a big thing, I can buy but many live in slums and can't afford them. So, I asked question not just for myself but for all girls. We went there to keep our concern and not to fight.”