Incidents of violence against women in Odisha point to systemic failure of governance: Naveen Patnaik

Bhubaneswar: BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik on Saturday expressed deep anguish over the incident of setting a 15-year-old girl on fire by miscreants in Odisha's Puri district and said such cases point to a systemic failure of governance.

A 15-year-old girl suffered 70 per cent burn injuries after unidentified youths poured an inflammable substance on her and set her on fire in Bayabar village in Balanga police station area on Saturday morning. She is undergoing treatment at AIIMS Bhubaneswar.

In a post on X, Patnaik, the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, said, "Such unthinkable incidents against women are now being reported almost daily across #Odisha. These are not stray cases of violence. These incidents occurring with shocking regularity point to a deep systemic failure of governance." "The incident has happened just within a week of the self-immolation of a student of FM College after she was denied justice even after knocking on every door, which took place after the horrific incident of gang-rape in Gopalpur," he added.

Patnaik said such incidents show that criminals have become emboldened under the present government and are not worried about being punished.

"It also shows how Odisha is becoming highly unsafe for women due to government inaction and political patronage," he said.

"Will the Odisha govt wake up from its deep slumber and take speedy action so that the criminals are arrested? And more importantly, will the government respond so that such incidents are not repeated? The girls and women of #Odisha await a response," he added.

A 20-year-old college student of FM College in Balasore resorted to self-immolation over sexual harassment on July 12. She died on July 14.