Jalandhar’s 'golden girl' Mallika Handa takes to Twitter, vents anger against Pargat Singh

Avneet Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 2

Jalandhar’s golden girl in chess Mallika Handa (26), who won several medals in national and international championships, took to Twitter on Sunday to vent her anger against state Education and Sports Minister Pargat Singh.

Mallika’s achievements

• Mallika is the first Indian girl to win gold in the International Deaf and Dumb Chess Championship. Besides, she is a seven-time gold medalist of the National Chess Championship for the Deaf, has been honoured with a National Disability Award and has also won a silver medal in the International Chess Committee of the Deaf (ICCD) worldwide World Deaf Blitz Chess Championship
• Renu Handa, mother of Mallika, said if there was no such policy in the first place, then how the former sports minister announced reward for Mallika

Mallika, who is suffering from 90 per cent hearing disability and speech impairment, posted a short video clip and a snapshot of an email which she had sent to Rahul Gandhi, CM Charanjit Singh Channi and PPCC president Navjot Sidhu on her Twitter handle.

The seven-time national deaf chess champion, Handa who was visibly upset, displayed the several medals and trophies she had earned for the country and asked Why is the Punjab Government being so unfair to her?

She tweeted: “On December 31, I met Sports Minister Pargat Singh and he said the Punjab government has no policy to give government jobs or cash rewards to deaf sportspersons.”

Narrating her ordeal, she wrote: “The former sports minister had announced a cash prize for me, I have the invitation letter for the event but unfortunately I didn’t receive the reward as the event was cancelled due to covid.”

She said she was surprised and shocked at the same time when the now Sports Minister said they have no policy for deaf sports. She asked why it was announced earlier.

In a telephonic conversation with The Tribune, Renu Handa, mother of Mallika, said if there was no such policy in the first place, then how the former sports minister announced reward for Mallika.

She said despite the fact that her daughter had won the national deaf championship title for the seventh time in a row and brought medals in international championships too, her efforts and hard work never got recognised by the state government.

She further added that her daughter is getting into depression; she wants to quit the game due to the government’s apathy.

Despite repeated attempts, Sports Minister Pargat Singh could not be contacted.