Odisha govt asked to pay compensation to dead girl's family

The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has asked the state government to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to the family of a nursing student, who committed suicide in 2014 allegedly due to negligence on the part of government officers.
OHRC officials today said that the chief secretary and the commissioner of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe welfare department were asked yesterday to provide the compensation to the family of Sunita Raita.
17-year-old Sunita hanged herself on August 13, 2014 after being denied a stipend she was entitled to receive from the Gajapati district Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA).
In her suicide note, she had blamed the district collector of Gajapati district and the project administrator of ITDA for her death, the officials said.

Sunita, who belonged to a BPL family, had been undertaking the Auxiliary Nursing and Midwifery course as a student, sponsored by the district ITDA.
Sunita's father had alleged that despite repeated appeals to the ITDA, Sunita was unable to get the stipend and the college authorities had sent a notice telling her that her name would be deleted if she failed to deposit the fees.
The OHRC officials said Sunita got only assurances but not the stipend and she took her life.
Human rights activists Prabir Kumar Das and Nishikanta Mohapatra brought the matter to the consideration of the OHRC.