Oppn slams state govt over ‘invasive’ admission form

ROHTAK : The opposition has slammed the Haryana government for seeking invasive information from school students through a 100-point admission form that asks questions related to caste, religion and Aadhaar details of the students.

The form also asks students if their parents are engaged in ‘unclean occupation’.

The opposition has accused the government of putting students and their parents under surveillance and promoting untouchability through this admission form.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) media in-charge Randeep Surjewala in a series of tweets said: “Surveillance is the DNA of BJP. Khattar govt issues a 100-point Students Admission Form.

It is really a Surveillance of Parents/students Form. Height of insanity is the kind of private info of parents being sought. Calling vocation of parents unclean is absurd.”

In another tweet, he said: “Khattar govt does it again. Students labelled as ‘untouchables and their parents occupation as unclean.

Govt taking a cue from Namo App. Since when has Aadhaar become mandatory for school admission?”

Several schools in the state said they were yet to receive the form, but maintained that they already collect most of these details from students.

“Details like Aadhaar, parents’ occupation and income are already in our existing admission form. We also collected the caste and religion details recently as per the government’s directions for their data survey.

It is good that they take all details at once. Otherwise we are regularly asked for sundry small things in mid-session,” said Indu Hooda, principal of Government Senior Secondary School in Rohtak’s Makrauli village.

INFO SOUGHT TO ENSURE BENEFITS TO STUDENTS: GOVT

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government on Wednesday said the objective of seeking information through the school admission form is to ensure that every student receives full benefit of every central and state government scheme and monetary benefits directly in the bank account. “No new term has been coined, much less introduced, in the form by the present government of Haryana,” an official spokesperson for the school education department said.

Regarding the use of a particular term (unclean occupation) with the vocation of parents, the spokesperson said this phrase has been a part of the scheme of pre-matric scholarship of union ministry of social justice and empowerment .