NEW DELHI: HRD ministry officials drew severe flak from the parliamentary committee on welfare of scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) on Wednesday for providing wrong data on SC / ST children in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVS).What added to the ire of the parliamentary panel is the absence of KVS Commissioner Avinash Dikshit from the meeting that was attended by all senior officials and heads of autonomous bodies. Faggan Singh Kulaste, head of the parliamentary panel said in future Dikshit has to be present in the meeting and in case he is not able to make it he will need to seek prior permission for his absence. Dikshit is already in the eye of a storm over the German-Sanskrit controversy for having inked the memorandum of understanding with Germany.The parliamentary panel had sought a meeting with HRD officials to examine the role of educational institutions on socio-economic development of SC and STs.Parliamentary panel said the figure of 2.07 lakh SC and 61,889 ST students in KVS is wrong and does not represent their actual status in these schools. Rajrishi Bhattacharya, secretary, school education and literacy, apologized for the mistake and promised to rectify the data. A senior joint secretary in the ministry has been asked to fix the responsibility for faulty data. However, ministry officials said, "Secretary was briefed in detail about the data and no one pointed out any mistake then." In fact, even after the parliamentary panel meeting, few officials tried to convince the secretary that the data is not wrong.Senior officials also said the correct reason for Dikshit's absence was not conveyed to the parliamentary panel. It is believed Dikshit was dealing with a non-bailable warrant issued against him by a court in south India. "Ministry was aware of it. Warrant against him related to a KVS matter," one official said.