
ROURKELA: Putting a question mark on the security measures at government-run facilities in Sundargarh, 15 tribal kids aged between five and 11 years, escaped unnoticed from the remotely-located hostel of Sihidia primary school in Bonai sub-division of the district on Tuesday night.
The students were later rescued by a patrol party of Barkote police in neighbouring Deogarh district from the road through a forest infested with wild animals. The incident has raised serious concerns about the safety and security of children and mismanagement gripping the government-run hostels under the ST & SC Development (SSD) department.
Shockingly, the local authorities of SSD and School & Mass Education (SME) departments did not have any inkling of the incident for 12 long hours. Finally, the children were brought safely to the hostel by a male teacher and the cook-cum-assistant at around 1.30 pm on Wednesday.
The children were under the care of the cook with the school headmistress-cum-hostel superintendent Draupadi Sahu staying elsewhere in absence of accommodation on the campus. At least 27 boys reside in the hostel of Sihidia primary school, located around 20 km from Bonai town.
Sources said 15 students from Classes I to V escaped from the hostel at around 11 pm. Walking in the dead of the night, they covered nearly 5 km to cross the Sundargarh border near Ambagaon and entered Barkote police limits of adjacent Deogarh. The road they traversed was surrounded by a forest which is home to wild animals including elephants.
Till 12 pm on Wednesday, Sundargarh district welfare officer (DWO) Bhagirathi Patel, Bonai block education officer (BEO) Sunil Mundi and welfare extension officer Mousami Behera did not have any information about the incident. The office of Bonai sub-collector Akshay Pillay got a call from Barkote police following which the local authorities of SSD and SME departments swung into action. Patel said Sihidia primary residential school is owned by the SME department, but run by the SSD department. The children were in the custody of a cook-cum-assistant as the campus has no quarters for the hostel superintendent. He claimed the children escaped as they did not like the environment and felt confined. The DWO further said the local authorities did not report the incident to the district authorities on time. Show cause notices would be issued to the local officers. District education officer AK Pradhan said prima facie, it appears that the incident took place due to negligence of the headmistress and the cook. Strong disciplinary action would be recommended along with preventive measures to stop similar reoccurrence.