Bhubaneswar, March 10: Growing incidents of sexual exploitation of tribal girls in government residential schools today sparked an uproar in the Assembly with the Opposition demanding exemplary action against the culprits.

The House witnessed noisy scenes as SC/ST welfare minister Bijoy Ranjan Singh Bariha admitted that a student of Bada Ambada Sevashram was found pregnant following medical test and departmental inquiry was conducted on the basis of a written complaint lodged by a lady teacher of the same school.

The inquiry also revealed that the headmaster of the school had got abortion of another girl student done during the Christmas vacation, said the minister.

Four persons, including headmaster P.K. Sahu, have been booked under Sections 376 and 506 of the IPC and remanded in jail custody, he said, adding that the headmaster had been placed under suspension, while the other three accused had been disengaged from service.

Angry Opposition members then castigated the Naveen Patnaik government for its “failure in ensuring safety of tribal girls”.

“It’s a shame for the government,” said an angry Congress legislator Mamata Madhi.

“When the government takes credit of opening 1,000 hostels for tribal girls with the objective of promoting female literacy in tribal areas, it has failed miserably in protecting the inmates,” observed senior tribal leader and former minister Dambarudhar Ulaka while moving an adjournment motion on the issue.

Claiming that four tribal girls in Bada Ambada Sevashram in Nowrangpur district had got pregnant following sexual exploitation by the teachers and staff, Ulaka said they would be socially ostracised in the tribal society.

“Who will take their responsibility?” he said, adding that the ex-gratia assistance of Rs 50,000 given to each of the two victims would not be helpful for their social rehabilitation. “It’s an irony that the teachers, who are supposed to take care of students, are outraging their modesty,” rued an Opposition legislator, demanding exemplary punishment and even death sentence for the guilty teachers.

Even ruling BJD MLA Pradeep Maharathy suggested castrating the rapists.

Describing the incident at Bada Ambada Sevashram as the “tip of the iceberg”, the Opposition members said similar allegations had been received from several other tribal residential schools.

Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh urged the government to inspect all the residential tribal girls schools and table a report in the Assembly.