Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has directed Angul district administration to pay a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to each family of two minor girls who had died of drowning in an uncovered pit in an Anganwadi centre in 2012.
A division bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Dr S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray issued the order after hearing the petitions filed by the fathers of the two children on September 30. They ordered that the amount must be paid within four weeks and compliance affidavits filed in the court by November 1.
As per the case, Monalisa Naik, the daughter of Jambeswar Naik and the daughter of Pitabas Das had gone to the Anganwadi centre operating on the premises of the Tentulihata Project Upper Primary School under Banarpal block in Angul district on September 7, 2012.
When the children, both 4 years of age, did not return home after the centre was closed, their families tried to search for them. They learnt that the bodies of the two children were found by the students of the school in the waterlogged pits on
its premises. The bodies were recovered and sent to the local nursing home where they were declared brought dead by the doctor.
The court also issued directions are issued to the Collectors of all the thirty districts in Odisha to ensure strict compliance with the directions of the Supreme Court on prevention of fatal accidents of children and extend those measures not just to bore wells or tube wells, but even construction sites and other places where it is likely that young children might meet with fatalities for lack of awareness and adequate safety measures.
