Bhubaneswar, September 1, 2018: Taking a serious view for not complying with its orders, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has summoned Bolangir district Collector on October 23 and directed him to submit
requisite report in connection with a petition of alleged starvation death of a disabled woman.
The summon notice came on August 13 after the Bolangir Collector failed to submit requisite report despite several reminders by the NHRC.
Human rights activist and NHRC Advisory body member Pradip Pradhan had filed a complaint with the apex human rights watchdog seeking an inquiry into starvation death of Saebani, a 70-year-old disable woman of Ghagara village of Ghagruli Gram Panchayat of Belapara block in Bolangir district.
On January 12, 2015, the media had highlighted the news about starvation death of Saebani due to her distress condition, lack of food, health care and she was also denied old age pension and widow pension. Having gone through the news and verifying the incident through a team of fact-finding team, Pradhan had filed complaint to NHRC seeking justice for her.
After registering the complaint, the NHRC on February 18, 2016 had sought an action-taken report (NHRC) from the Bolangir Collector within four weeks. However, despite reminders on June 30 and November 11, 2016 the Collector
failed to comply with the orders.
Even the warning of coercive process has not yielded any result.
Hence, the NHRC took a very serious view of the non-responsive attitude on the part of the Collector and issued notice for personal appearance before the Commission.
