A state-run school in Bihar's Vaishali district has been found allegedly segregating students along caste and religious lines, prompting the government to order an inquiry, an official said Thursday.

District Magistrate Rajiv Raushan said the inquiry was ordered following media reports claiming that students belonging to different castes and religious communities were made to sit separately at the G A Higher Secondary School in the district's Lalganj block.

He said they have also written to higher authorities in the education department to take "exemplary action against the school's principal in order to deter others from adopting such practices".

Students from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes and upper castes, as well as from the Hindu and Muslim communities, were assigned separate sections in their respective classrooms, according to the reports.

The reports had also claimed that separate attendance registers were, therefore, being maintained for students belonging to different social segments even though the children freely intermingled outside the school.

"The allegations have been found to be, prima facie, true in the inquiry. This is a very serious and sensitive matter," the district magistrate said.

Orders have been issued to immediately do away with the discriminatory system prevailing at the school, he said.

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