Govt transfers collector following student's death

Amid criticism over suicide of a tribal nursing student at R Udayagiri in Gajapati due to alleged delay in getting stipend for her study, Odisha Government today transferred the district Collector, official sources said.
Gajapati district Collector Basudev Bahinipati was replaced by Mansi Nimbhal, Project Director, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), Mayurbhanj, according to an official notification.
Sunita Raita, a BSc nursing student, hanged herself on August 13 at R Udayagiri after allegedly failing to get her stipend amount under a government scheme from the local Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), police said.
Sunita's father Sudam had alleged that despite repeated appeals to local ITDA office Sunita was unable to get the stipend. The college authorities had told her that her name would be deleted if she failed to deposit money immediately, he claimed.

Sudam handed over a diary containing an alleged suicide note to the police two days later claiming that it was written by her daughter, Gajapati district Superintendent of Police, C S Meena said.
Project Administrator of Parlakhemundi ITDA office Kalyan Rath said the girl's name was sponsored to a particular nursing college at Bhubaneswar under the vocational training programme, but she joined a different academy on her own choice due to which there was delay in releasing the stipend.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced an ex-gratia of Rs one lakh each to the next of kin of Sunita and another tribal girl student Kanakdei Bhatra, who also committed suicide for similar reason.

Kanakdei succumbed to her burn injuries at SCB Medical College Hospital at Cuttack on Thursday, three weeks after she set herself afire after her parents had expressed inability to pay her school fees.
Kanakdei was a class X student of Ghatguda High School under Papdahandi block in Nabarangpur district and hailed from Khutuguda village.