Deleted sports raise suspicion

The petitioners who approached the High Court seeking redressal against the illegalities in the sports quota alleged that the authorities deleted some sports disciplines from the list in order to prevent them from taking advantage of the quota as they were whistleblowers who has exposed the scam in the Sports Authority of Telangana (SAT) last year that led to raids by the Anti Corruption Bureau and subsequent arrests.

Ms Bontha Evangelin, one of the petitioners, said that she was a state gold medallst and played in a number of national level competitions in archery.

She says archery has been deleted from the list of disciplines as she is one of the complainants who approached Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and exposed the corrupt practices of Sports Authority of Telangana officials in selecting candidates under the sports quota.

She added that archery was on the list of sports disciplines listed in the government order which was issued for admissions for the academic year 2017-18, but was deleted this year because “we raised our voice against the irregularities committed by the officials of the sports authority in selecting candidates last year,” thus preventing her and other whistleblowers from gaining admission through the quota.

Bharath Chandra Reddy and K. Varshitha Raj, who have participated in international roller-skating competitions, said that the authorities have deleted rollerskating, fencing and archery. They said it is “not only ironic but also suspicious” that universally played sports have been deleted and sports not popularly played have been included.