Raighar, 6th Oct 2025: Mangala Singh Gand, a seventh-grade student living in the hostel of Turudihi Upper Primary School in Raighar block of Nabarangpur district, fell ill on Friday night. Despite being under treatment, he died late at night. Villagers, along with former MLA Subash Gand, Block Chairman Guptaprasad Jhankar, Congress leader Sanraj Gand, former Block Chairperson Naveena Nayak, Zilla Parishad member Jatindra Gand, and committee member Ramanath Keuta, gathered in protest alleging negligence on the part of the school authorities leading to the student’s death.
When the Block Education Officer (BEO) Vikas Chandra Sarkar came to investigate the matter, the villagers locked him inside the school for five hours. The authorities were engaged in discussions with the protesters.
Additional Tahsildar Mousumi Sajan, ABDO Vijay Kumar Sethi, Circle Officer Shyamsundar Dhurua, and Raighar Police Station Officer Raghunath Majhi arrived at the site and held talks with the villagers. Following administrative intervention, the villagers opened the lock and released the BEO.
The family of the deceased student was given a compensation amount of Rs. 2 lakh, and the Headmaster Nanigopal Biswas was suspended. After this, the protesters dispersed.
According to reports, Mangala Singh Gand of Odandi village in Kacharpa Panchayat is a seventh-grade student at Turudihi Upper Primary School and was residing in the school hostel. On Friday night at 11:30 PM, he suddenly fell ill. The hostel authorities, upon learning this, took him to Hatabharandi Hospital. At 12:30 AM, doctors referred him to Umarakot Subdivision Health Center, where his treatment began at 1:30 AM. After about 45 minutes, doctors declared Mangala Singh dead there. The body was handed over to the family after the postmortem.
Upon questioning Headmaster Nanigopal Biswas, it was revealed that the student suffered from sickle cell disease and had been in poor health for over a year.
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