Congress today staged a walkout in Chhattisgarh Assembly over the alleged exploitation of three tribal students by the director of a school here.
Raising the issue through a calling attention motion in the Assembly, Congress legislators - Motilal Dewangan, Manoj Singh Mandavi and Santram Netam said 'Jawahar Scheduled Tribe Utkarsh Vidyarthi Scheme' for meritorious tribal students is being run by the state government so that they can pursue studies in good schools of the city.
"However, several students are being exploited on the premises, rather than them getting benefits of studying there. Even the administration has failed to properly monitor its effective implementation," they said.
Three students - Mayank Markam from Bijapur district, Pradeep Kumar and Kushal Patra (Kanker) had excelled academically in class V and were recommended for further studies to Raipur under the government programme by the Tribal Department. They secured admission for class VI in Vedanta International School at Devendra Nagar in Raipur, under this programme.
"They have been doing household work, including cleaning bathrooms and giving massages, at the residence of the school's director Satish Sharma rather than attending classes from the past one year," Congress members said and accused the director of making the children "bonded labourers".
On July 19, when children's parents contacted Bhanupratappur MLA Mandavi and Keshkal MLA Santram Netam, the children were rescued and an was lodged FIR in this connection, Dewangan said alleging that the incident has revealed the poor condition of the children studying under Jawahar Utkarsh scheme.
According to Netam, the nodal officer under the scheme and others never take stock of the children once they get admitted to the schools.
