ROURKELA: Veteran Congress leader and former MP Frida Topno passed away at Bhubaneswar on Monday night due to old age. She was 92. Topno was a spinster.Born on September 20, 1925, Frida graduated from Sailabala College, Cuttack to become the first tribal graduate from Odisha. She retired as Deputy Secretary in Tribal Welfare department in the early 1980s.
In 1985, she was elected from RN Pali Assembly constituency in Sundargarh as a Congress candidate. She was twice elected to 10th and 11th Lok Sabha on Congress ticket from Sundargarh constituency in 1991 and 1996. She was also a Rajya Sabha member from 1998 to 2002.
Frida was the national vice-president of Indian Women’s Hockey Federation and president of Odisha Women’s Hockey Association.Family sources said her mortal remains would be buried at her birthplace Rungaon village in Bargaon block of Sundargarh district on Wednesday.