Guwahati: The use of a seven-year-old girl by the Lakhimpur district unit of the Congress during a protest against price rise has prompted the Assam State Commission for Protection of Child on Thursday to urge the district police for action against those involved in the "cruelty".

Taking a suo motu cognisance of the report about a girl being made to sit on a betel leaf frond and dragged along in the scorching sun, chairperson of the commission, Sunita Changkakoti, asked the Lakhimpur superintendent of police to submit an action taken report within 24 hours.

The commission highlighted that it was a case of cruelty against the child under Section 13 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2005.

Congress workers on Wednesday staged a protest against price rise and termed the BJP-led government both at the Centre and in Assam "trust breakers" as they had promised to control prices but instead hiked the same, including fuel prices, after winning the elections.

One protester dragged the girl on a layer of betel nut leaf in a "symbolic" protest to show that parents had no option but to use such layers to take their children to school because of the fuel price hike.

"We also gifted such leaves to some parents as part of our symbolic protest," one of the Congress leaders told television channels on Wednesday.

Children in rural Assam play with such layers.

The Assam PCC on Thursday set up a two-member committee for action against those involved in the alleged cruelty to the child. PCC president Ripun Bora ordered the probe and called for a report within 48 hours.

President of the Lakhimpur unit of the Congress, Jaiprakash Das, apologised for the incident and called it unfortunate.