Official apathy proves fatal for Class VIII girl
In a freak mishap, an inmate of tribal welfare hostel at Lakhmapur, Sumalata, accidentally fell into a ditch dug by the Mission Kakatiya contractor on Monday and died while she was returning to the hostel after answering the call of nature.
Adilabad: In a freak mishap, an inmate of tribal welfare hostel at Lakhmapur, Sumalata, accidentally fell into a ditch dug by the Mission Kakatiya contractor on Monday and died while she was returning to the hostel after answering the call of nature.
She was a student of eighth class in the Tribal Welfare Residential School at Lakhampur. Ankita, another girl who escorted Sumalata, informed the incident to the watchman but the watchman allegedly did not go to the rescue of the victim.
Later, Sumalata’s relatives staged a rasta roko on National Highway 44, along with the body affecting movement of vehicular traffic. Traffic got stranded on the highway for a distance of 2 km on either side.
The demonstrators sought action against the hostel warden, the school principal and the Mission Bhagiratha officials and sought District Collector and ITDA Project Officer’s intervention in the issue. They demanded payment of Rs 10 lakh ex gratia and a government job to one of the family members.
However, they relented when the Mission Kaktiya contractor agreed to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation and the ITDA Rs 3 lakh besides a government job to one of the family members of Sumalata.
Joint Collector Krishna Reddy visited the hostel and directed ITDA Deputy Director to place the warden and the school principal under suspension. He vented his ire on the hostel officials for not providing basic amenities.
He sought to know why the toilet facility was not provided to the girls. Several students complained to the Krishna Reddy of being forced to take bath in the open and go out to answer the call of nature.
One of the students Rama said Sumalata died because of officials paying no heed to their plea to provide water facility. There are 750 students in the residential school. There should be at least one toilet for every 30 inmates, but the hostel does not have at least one for every 100.
The hostel officials are keeping some of the toilets locked. The hostel inmates have been appealing to the government to provide amenities in tribal welfare residential hostels.
