To tackle the issue of age fraud, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has made it mandatory for grapplers participating in any national tournaments to furnish their birth certificates.
They will have to do so before taking part in the competition.
"The Wrestling Federation of India has decided to take a few important steps. It has made it mandatory for wrestlers to produce birth certificate to compete in Nationals," the federation said in a statement.
Recently, of the 1000 grapplers participating in the U-15 open ranking tournament in Patna, as many as 150 wrestlers were thrown out of the competition by WFI.
Besides, in the U-17 (cadet) national tournament that concluded in Ranchi, those found over-aged were thrown out of the competition.
It has come to light that the wrestlers "take the Delhi route" to get the birth certificate of lower age since online applications are accepted in the national capital.
It has also been observed that most wrestlers from Haryana are prone to tampering with their documents.
On the condition of anonymity, a wrestler has admitted to getting a birth certificate issued online from Delhi as he wanted to reduce his age by two years.
WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and brought to their notice the issue of age-fudging in the national capital.
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Published 27 April 2022, 14:12 IST