BHUBANESWAR: Expressing serious concern over the incident at the ST&SC department-run residential school at Chitrakonda in Malkangiri district where a 15-year-old Class X girl student delivered a baby on the hostel rooftop, the Opposition BJD and Congress on Wednesday demanded Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi to review the situation in all such schools and take urgent corrective measures.
Deputy leader of Opposition and BJD MLA Prasanna Acharya said it was surprising that the school and hostel management did not know that a girl student was pregnant.
“The incident has exposed how unsafe the tribal girl students are in the hostels and how they are being exploited. The government is responsible for such state of affairs. The society at large should also be concerned over such incidents taking place in tribal residential schools. A proper investigation should be done to find out the lacunae and fix them,” he said.
Leader of the Congress legislature party Ramachandra Kadam also condemned the incident and said the BJD and BJP governments were responsible for such a situation. “The previous BJD and now the BJP government have neglected the tribals,” he said.
He said the party will send a fact-finding team to the school to take stock of the situation. He also demanded that the state government conduct a high-level inquiry into the incident and take corrective measures.