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Patiala, September 22
Leveling serious allegations of caste discrimination against the Education Department authorities, the parents of a table tennis player lodged a complaint with the Patiala Deputy Commissioner and other authorities concerned.
In her complaint, the mother of the child alleged that despite high merit in trials, the Education Department officials did not select their child for the under-19 table tennis tournament. She also suspected that the officials handpicked the players and dropped the name of their child only for being Dalit.
The complaint reads, “After the trials, coaches prepared the merit list of students on September 1, but on September 20, the Education Department officials called them and prepared another list ignoring their child. The names of two other players were included in the revised list despite the fact that they did not undergo any trials.”
Rajinder Pal, child’s father, said the officials deliberately excluded the name of his child from the selection list as they had ignored the merit list and their behaviour was also discriminatory due to their lower caste.
He said, “The players were selected by the coaches, but the education department officials rearranged the list and added general category students in it by eliminating the names of Dalit players.”
He said the DC had assured them of appropriate resolution of their issue and also directed the Education Department authorities to review the matter.
Meanwhile, the Education Department officials refuted all allegations and termed the case baseless. The previous selections were done with the draw system but some players objected to the draw which was held on September 1. We called the meeting of all officials and parents of the players who participated in the trials to decide the matter. The points of two players remained common in the selection list and one of them was selected randomly who belonged to general category,” Jagtar Singh Tiwana, an official of the Education Department, said.
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