PARLAKHEMNDI: Two days after a tribal girl allegedly committed suicide due to delay in getting stipend for nurses' training under a government scheme in Odisha's Gajapati district, police today said a note purportedly left by her has been found.
The father of the girl handed over a diary containing an alleged suicide note to the police at R Udayagiri yesterday claiming that it was written by her daughter, Gajapati district Superintendent of Police, C S Meena said.
The note and the content of the diary would be examined by hand-writing experts in order to ascertain whether it was written by the girl, Sunita Raita (21), he said adding further investigation was on.
Sunita, belonging to a BPL family, had allegedly hanged herself on August 13 when no one was present at her home.
The incident sparked a controversy as her father Sudam Raita, a daily labourer, and mother alleged that the girl, a student of BSc nursing course in a private college at Bhubaneswar, took the step as she failed to get the stipend.
Sudam said his daughter had joined the course banking on the scheme providing Rs 54,000 to tribal students towards course fee and hostel dues annually for technical education.
He further alleged that despite repeated appeals to the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) office here, Sunita was unable to get the stipend and the college authorities told her that her name would be deleted if she failed to deposit the money immediately.
Project Administrator of Parlakhemundi ITDA office Kalyan Rath said the girl's name was sponsored to a particular nursing college at Bhubaneswar under the vocational training programme, but she joined a different academy on her own choice due to which there was delay in releasing the stipend.
Denying any negligence on the part of administraton, Gajapati district Collector Basudev Bahinipati said Sunita had met him at his grievance cell at R Udayagiri on August 11 for the first time and in front of all including local peoples representatives he assured the girl that steps would be taken to release the stipend and the very next day saction was accorded by him for the same.
Following suicide of the girl, the ADM has been asked to inquire into the matter, he said.