Balangir minor boy attack: Rights panels seek ATR

OST Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jan 19:

The Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) and the State Child Rights Commission have sought details from the Balangir district administration on the steps it has taken so far on the attack on Sushant Kumbhar, a 10-year-old boy, by a brick kiln owner in Karnakata while he had gone with his family as a migrant labourer in November last year.

OHRC, hearing the petition by social activists and lawyer Biswapriya Kanungo on Saturday, has sought details from the district administration.

The petitioner has demanded proper treatment of Sushant and his proper rehabilitation with adequate compensation. “Since the boy is undergoing treatment at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, the state government should provide interim compensation towards the cost of his treatment”, he had said.

The Commission has also issued notices to the Labour department and SCB Hospital authorities in this regard.

Member of the State Child Rights Commission, Rajendra Meher, in a letter to the district administration and the district Child Welfare Committee on Saturday, has asked them to provide details on the circumstances in which the minor boy had gone to Karnataka to work as a migrant labourer, when did the administration got to know about the physical torture on the boy and what steps it has taken after that.

Meanwhile, the SCB Medical College Hospital management here has formed a four-member team of doctors from orthopaedic and plastic surgery departments to treat the 12-year-old boy, who was shifted here from the VSS Medical College Hospital, Burla on Friday.

The doctors here are hopeful of saving the injured arm of the boy by surgery and unlikely to go in for amputation although gangrene has already set in as the old injuries were left untreated for several days.