Tripura: Father fails to buy a smartphone for daughter, ends life

Agartala: In a shocking incident, a 45-year-old daily worker ended his life after allegedly failing to buy an android smartphone for his daughter to attend online classes started by the education department.

Sukumar Bhowmik was a daily labourer and a resident of Rajnagar Purathal village under Madhupur police station in Sepahijala district.

His daughter had requested her father to buy her a smartphone so that she can attend the online classes.

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Speaking with reporters, an on-duty police officer said that on Tuesday night Sukumar managed to get an ordinary mobile for his daughter; she wanted a smartphone for her classes.

Sukumar did not have his dinner on Tuesday night and went off to sleep in a separate hut where he died due to suicide.

The death of the lone earner of the family has one again raised concern over the difficulties faced by the people in the remote area of the state, the police official said.

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The state government had started online classes for schools on local cable television channels and YouTube in the first phase. Now the department has begun sending feeds through Whatsapp and text messages which requires a smartphone.

Following the incident, the Pradesh Congress Committee vice-president Tapas Dey expressed his concern and called it an unfortunate incident.

“This is the result of the wrong decision of the state government. The state government has decided to distribute smartphones among the final year graduating students. Still, the government should have provided the same to all poor students of BPL categories to help them have access to education at the time of lockdown”, Dey said.

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