cut tack:
Orissa’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the state government to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the father of a seven-year-old girl for her “avoidable” death as a result of a wall collapse at a school in Keonjhar district nine years ago.
A divisional bank, headed by Chief Justice S. Muralidhar, said that responsibility for the girl’s death “definitely rests with the state” as the authorities’ negligence in using faulty materials to build a kitchen on the school grounds build had already been established during the investigation .
Raimati Soren was a resident of the Kolhabeda Ashram School hostel in Ghasipura block, about 100 km from Cuttack. On October 3, 2013, a wall of a newly built kitchen shed collapsed and the Class I student, brushing her teeth, was crushed under the rubble.
Closer examination revealed that the wall had been illegally built without proper foundations.
When the bank heard Soren’s father’s petition, the bank said the death would not have occurred if all security measures had been followed strictly.
“The death of the young child was totally unnecessary and avoidable. The responsibility for the death rests absolutely with the state,” it said in its nine-page verdict.
The bank, which also included Judge RK Pattanaik, said the amount previously given to Soren by the state can be deducted and the balance must be given to him within eight weeks.
The petitioner previously received compensation of Rs 50,000 in addition to Rs 10,000 from the District Red Cross Society Fund.
The court said the death resembled the pattern of several similar cases in Odisha’s schools.
It instructed district collectors to ensure strict adherence to Supreme Court instructions regarding measures to prevent fatal accidents involving children.
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