Babu bars tribal kids from attending religious events

Children allegedly made to walk barefoot with earthen pitchers on head ◗ The bureaucrat, Deepali Rastogi, has also barred the tribal school children from participating in the programmes hosted by political leaders

Senior woman IAS officer Deepali Rastogi, who has recently rubbed her colleagues in bureaucracy the wrong way by accusing some of them of being servile to their political masters, has raised eyebrows in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS) by putting restrictions on tribal school children to attend religious programmes. In a directive to heads of departments coming under state scheduled caste and scheduled tribe welfare department, where she has been posted as commissioner, Ms Rastogi ordered that inmates of tribal residential schools and tribal ashrams as well as students of tribal schools be barred from attending any kind of religious programmes in their respective areas.

The order came apparently in response to a petition to her seeking action against the decision by authorities concerned for allowing children of tribal residential school in Barwani district to participate in a religious programme, organised by an outfit linked to RSS in March this year.

The children were allegedly made to walk barefoot with earthen pitchers on their head, during a religious procession carried out by the outfit in the area.

The bureaucrat also barred the tribal school children from participating in the programmes hosted by political leaders.

Ms Rastogi has recently sparked a row when she, in an article published in a daily, lamented that the bureaucrats who chose to be servile to their political masters were only considered competent.

Earlier, she had stirred a controversy by questioning the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet scheme Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, describing the use of toilets as habit of British people and not an Indian tradition.