Now, Jalandhar school wants girls to pay for boarding & lodging

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 24

A day after The Tribune reported how 45 girls of the residential hockey wing at the Government Senior Secondary School, Nehru Garden, have been left in the lurch by the school and Punjab Sports Department, the authorities on Friday issued a diktat to them to pay for the boarding and lodging from now on, else leave the school.

Many say the drastic decision smacks of vindictiveness but what is befuddling is the overnight flurry of decisions on the part of the school authorities and the Sports Department.

Without any prior notice it was announced in the middle of the session that the residential wing has been closed for hockey trainees. Now, the girls are being forced to shell out Rs 5,000 as annual charges and Rs 3000 as monthly fee to complete the session. The 45 girls, mostly from a humble background, have no other option as the trials for other schools have been completed. The players have now urged Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal to let them continue there till excellence centres for hockey (Punjab Institute of Sports) come up in the state.

Class XII student Mandeep Kaur, hailing from village Lambra in Jalandhar, is worried how she will pay the fee as his father, the only earning member of the family, died just a month ago. Neha, the youngest of the four sibling, from village Pawnoor in Hoshiarpur, has a bed-ridden father at home. Her mother is a mid-day meal worker, barely managing to make both ends meet.

Some of the hockey players are so desperate to stay put that they tried their luck in the trials for other disciplines on Friday. 

Harjeet Kaur, a class 12th student and twice gold medallist in the school’s U-17 and U-19 team said, “The academies in village Badal in Mukatsar and Guru Granth Sahib World University in Fatehgarh are far better but our performance has been better than them.”

District Education officer (secondary), Harinder Pal Singh, said, “According to the sports policy, we provide boarding and lodging free of cost but since the hockey wing is closed now, the players have to pay the annual charges and hostel fee like other students.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary, (Sports) Pawan Kumar Tinnu struck a conciliatory note. “I will bring the matter to the notice of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and hope that we will be able to find a solution. There are a few seats still vacant in some of the hockey wings across the state, the department will try to accommodate the best talent there with immediate effect.”