Photographs showing girl students cleaning toilets at a government school in Madhya Pradesh's Guna district appeared in the local media on Thursday, prompting state panchayat minister Mahendra Singh Sisodia to order a probe.

The incident came to light when reports in this regard surfaced in the media with photos of girls in uniform cleaning toilets at a primary and middle school located in Chakdevpur village in the district, an official said.

As the images found their way to social media platforms, state minister Sisodia directed the Guna district collector to probe the matter and take action against guilty officials, he said.

The media reports suggested the girls were students of Classes 5 and 6. In the photos, they were seen holding brooms in their hands and cleaning toilets by fetching water from a hand pump in the school premises.

Both primary and middle sections of the school are being run from the same campus in the village.

A team of the school education department also reached the school on Thursday to conduct a separate probe in the matter, the official said.

The incident took place on Tuesday when the school principal was away in Guna town to attend an official meeting, he said.

We have taken the matter very seriously and are probing the issue. Action will be taken against those found guilty in the matter, the education department's deputy director, Chandra Shekhar Sisodia, said.