School official suspended for girl pregnancy

The Orissa government on Sunday suspended the hostel superintendent and recommended departmental action against the Pedakonda Government High School headmaster for their failure to detect and report the case of a Class 9 student’s motherhood in the school. “Hostel superintendent Sabitarani Sarkar has been suspended and action has been recommended against headmaster Prashanta Kumar Panda for dereliction of duty,” collector Prashant Kumar Reddy told mediapersons here. While the local people welcoming the suspension of the school officials, there was disquiet in the area about the inaction of the government officials who were fully aware of the matter and yet did not choose to inform the higher authorities about it. The school authorities had informed both district education officer Manas Kumar Jena and block education officer Binod Singh, but the latter did not report the matter. Besides, a medical check-up was conducted on the underage girl at the Malkangiri district hospital on February 21 in the presence of chief district medical officer Uday Shankar Mishra, who too chose to remain quiet about it.