Tribal villagers, SMC members seek strong action
Yet another case of sexual abuse of minor tribal girls has been reported in Japakhal residential ashram school under Halua panchayat, 10 km from the district headquarters town here.
The accused is headmaster Bimbadhar Das. It is a roadside school having residential facility for 100 girls and as many boys.
The allegation was leveled by the tribal villagers including the School Management Committee members. On Monday hundreds of villagers including tribal women thronged the grievance room of the district Collector and lodged the complaint against Das.
They said that the headmaster was forcing the grown up girls to massage his body and pull water from well when he took bath and went to latrine.
Japakhal village is having exclusively 60 ST households belonging to Kandha community. The village has only one tube well which caters to the entire population of the village. Very often, water becomes insufficient even for the drinking and cooking need of the inhabitants for which they have to consume water from the nearby Jhanjabati river and fall ill. When the tribal ladies dare to collect water from the water source present in the school, the headmaster misbehaves with them using filthy language and throwing their water pots, alleged the villagers.
The headmaster cares a damn of the Right to Education Act which entails that there is no admission fee; but he demands `500, a country chicken and a broom per student in case of a new admission. He comes to school drunk and neglects his duties, alleged the villagers.
A team of scribes investigated the case and collected depositions from the affected tribal girls, villagers and school management committee members like lati Huika and Bikram Huika. The school environment around was in a shambles. Several notice boards on the walls were blank. The major water source of the school was defunct for last one and a half months. Unfortunately the concerned department authorities had not paid any heed to the issue. The school children were compelled to drink from a polluted stream. They also took bath in the stream.
Being advised by the Collector, the villagers filed a FIR in Rayagada Police Station. It is learnt from reliable source that the police under the leadership of IIC Tapan Mohanty had detained Das and were interrogating him.