Odisha undergraduate girl student’s self-immolation bid following sexual harassment triggers massive political controversy

The self-immolation bid by undergraduate girl student after her complaint of prolonged sexual harassment by a teacher was not addressed to in a government-run autonomous college in Odisha’s Balasore district has triggered a massive political controversy, even though the accused teacher has been arrested and government has constituted a probe committee.

- 

The unsavory episode, which brought to the fore unsafe campus environs for girl students in higher educational institutions, severely damaged the government's image keeping in view the fact the State has witnessed spurt in crimes against women during the one-year-old BJP Government in Odisha.

Gauging the widespread anger, the Government has initiated damage-control exercises even as the undergraduate girl student sustaining over 90 percent burn injury is battling for life at AIIMS-Bhubaneswar.

Chief Minister Mohan Majhi rushed to AIIMS immediately from the airport after arriving from Delhi. A select band of his cabinet colleagues are understood to have been entrusted to monitor the situation and save the government from further damage due to the incident.