MP Police Aspirants Marked as ‘Scheduled Caste’ on Chest; Probe Ordered After Hue and Cry

Dhar: Several candidates appearing for a medical test for the constable’s job in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar were allegedly marked with ‘SC’ written on their chests in a bid to identify them according to their castes for identification.

Photographs of the medical test procedure from Dhar district have gone viral. The pictures show the candidates standing with their caste status written on the chests.

Union minister Ramdas Athawale said, “Writing the caste on the body of candidates is wrong and I will write to the CM. An inquiry should be done and action against should be also taken.”

Interestingly, several Madhya Pradesh districts, including Gwalior, Bhind and Morena, had witnessed massive protests by Dalit groups against alleged moves to dilute the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act during the Bharat Bandh on April 2.

The medical tests were conducted at the local district hospital in Dhar, which is 60 km from Indore.

According to sources, the officers resorted to bizarre method of measuring the height of candidates by mentioning the caste they belong to on their chests.

Sources from Dhar claimed that the minimum height of the candidates from general and OBC categories should be 168 cm while for SC/ST categories it should be 165 cm. The hospital staff claimed that the caste was mentioned on the chests so that there is no goof up in height measurement of different categories.

Dhar SP, Virendra Singh later said, “It shouldn’t have happened. We have initiated a probe into the incident. A report will soon be filed on the same.”

Some local media outlets quoted him as saying, “There was no specific order from the police administration to mention the castes on the candidates’ chests.”

District hospital is also planning to launch a probe into the goof up. A total of 206 male and female candidates are to be selected in the process.