TNI Bureau: Congress continues to corner the Odisha government over the Balasore Fakir Mohan Autonomous College incident. Alka Lamba, the All India Mahila Congress President along with Cuttack MLA Sofia Firdous raised the issue during a press meet in Delhi today.
In her address to the newsmen, Lamba said that the is student is an office bearer of ABVP, the student organization of BJP-RSS.
“However, the HOD of the department Sameer Kumar Sahu was constantly pressurizing this B.Ed. student for sexual favors and was threatening her she would have to face consequences. The student did not accept these threats and informed the entire matter to the school principal Dilip Ghosh on June 30. On July 1, the student complained about this matter to the BJP MP, the Chief Minister of Odisha and the the internal committee of the college,” she informed.
The student, fed up with mental harassment, went on a dharna after 11 days, but when she felt that she would not get justice, she set herself on fire in the college campus, the Congress leader said.
Lamba alleged that all this is happening in Odisha where BJP has a ‘double engine government’. “Despite strict laws, crimes against women are increasing. This is because there is pressure from BJP-RSS and ABVP officials on the police and administration in Odisha. Most of the officials are found sitting in the police stations of the state. Whenever someone commits a crime, he goes to BJP leaders for protection and then the leaders save the criminals,” she alleged.
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She further said that in this case, the local BJP MP wrote a letter to the college principal saying that there are serious allegations against the HOD and he should be removed from the post, but nothing happened. Being an office bearer of ABVP, this student tried to meet PM Narendra Modi who recently visited Odisha, but she was stopped. In such a situation, the question is why was she stopped, why was she not allowed to meet him, the Congress leader questioned.
Now, the President of the country Droupadi Murmu herself comes from Odisha. Today she is attending a program at the same AIIMS Bhubaneswar where this student is admitted in a critical condition. We just want to say that the President should meet this student, she demanded.
“Crime is at its peak in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. There is a BJP government here and it is completely protecting the criminals. This is a matter of great concern. If we look at the statistics of crimes against women during one year of BJP rule in Odisha 2,14,113 cases of crimes against women have been reported. There have been 3,054 cases of rape and 1,207 cases of murder registered in the state 9 acid attack incidents have been reported in Odisha in a year. The question is- What did the BJP government do in these cases, how many people got punished? How many women and daughters of Odisha got justice, the All India Mahila Congress President asked.
Adding to her Sofia Firdous said, “Today again Odisha is in the headlines, but not for development, but because of crimes against women. A 20-year-old student studying at Fakir Mohan College, Balasore raised her voice against the HOD who demanded sexual favours from her. But when she failed to reach out to the MP and the Chief Minister of Odisha, she set herself on fire. That girl put her life at stake so that the reality of Odisha’s failure system could be exposed.”
“This is a wake-up call for us, so that we can raise our voice against the atrocities being committed against women. Our demand is the chief minister should take responsibility and resign from his post and tere should be a judicial inquiry in this case so that the culprits are punished. Besides, PM Modi should break his silence and answer the people of Odisha,” Sofia said.
“Today, crimes against women are happening everywhere in Odisha. Girls are getting pregnant in schools. A college student has tried to commit suicide on campus. Women and girls are not safe anywhere. The BJP government will have to respond and work on our demands,” she demanded.
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