Bhubaneswar, Jan. 10: Chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi today said enhanced compensation would be paid to the next of the kin of a minor blind rape and murder victim in Konark within six weeks.
The case, heard at the National Human Rights Commission's camp court today, relates to the rape and murder of the girl near Konark in Puri district on June 5, 2013.
The girl was raped and murdered and an iron rod shoved into her private parts.
The police report suggested that the accused had throttled the victim and pierced her private parts with the iron rod causing profuse bleeding resulting in her death.
The state government had ordered compensation of Rs 1,50,000 for the victim's next of kin. However, considering the brutality with which the minor girl was killed, the commission recommended doubling the compensation.
The chief secretary today agreed to pay the additional Rs 1,50,000.
The panel also directed the chief secretary to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation to the next of kin of daily wager Binod Gouda, who died of electrocution in 2015.
The panel was acting on a petition filed by senior Supreme Court advocate Radhakanta Tripathy, and considering the reply filed by the state authorities.
Gouda came in contact with live wires and died on the spot because of the negligence of the electricity department of Odisha. Local residents also alleged that the carelessness of the electricity distribution company (Southco) had led to his death, the report stated.
The failure of the electricity department and the local administration in ensuring the basic human rights of the deceased and the negligence of the department in the present case amounts to serious violation of human rights, Tripathy alleged.
The panel deputed its special rapporteur Damodar Sarangi to investigate the plight of tribal children and their basic human rights in the remote villages of Dhenkanal district.
In another case, the NHRC today directed Sarangi to visit the spot of the Indravati project due to which around one lakh people of more than 100 villages were cut off from the rest of the state.
The commission noted that the state government was yet to form a team to look into the problems of those displaced by the project. The commission also directed the chief secretary to submit a report within 12 weeks.