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Bhubaneswar: Government officials of Orissa state yesterday thwarted a 500km walk that five-year-old athletic sensation Budhia Singh was to begin.
Budhia's coach Biranchi Das has challenged the government's action of stopping the "summer marathon" to Kolkata in a court.
"I as a guardian of the kid have moved the court of the district judge at Bhubaneswar against the government's move," Das told IANS.
Budhia's mother Sukanti Singh also moved the court on behalf of the Budhia Singh Trust, the organiser of the marathon, he said.
"The government is deliberately out to humiliate Budhia when hundreds of thousands children in the state are left without care and the government never takes any steps," added Das who has adopted Budhia after paying Rs800 to his impoverished mother.
Das and Sukanti Singh along with about a hundred people including children staged a sit-in protest near the Judo Hall where the government, represented by a full force of police, child welfare personnel and senior officials, stopped the marathon kid from marching to Kolkata.
Escalating controversy
Budhia, who has been at the centre of an escalating controversy over child rights and exploitation, was attempting to walk the 500km between Bhubaneswar and Kolkata in an incredible 10 days.
This would have entailed at least 50km of walking every day under a relentless sun in these days of peak summer.
The Khordha District Child Welfare Committee, which had formally banned the walk last week, on Tuesday night also passed an order specifying that nobody could use or engage Budhia for walking the long distance.
"As per the order, we can't allow any person to take Budhia on his long distance journey to Kolkata," Khordha police chief Amitav Thakur, who had reached the hall at 9am to stop the march, told IANS.
Thakur was accompanied by Khordha Collector Narayan Chandra Jena - in charge of this state capital which falls in Khordha district - and other police personnel. The boy said his walk was intended to create awareness among the youth about sports. Child Welfare Committee chief Rabisankar Mishra said he was empowered to protect the interests of children in the state.
Clearly unhappy with the move, Das said Budhia's mother, who lives in a slum, was to "take him on the long walk".
"Some 500 others were to accompany them with medicines and food items. But the government is not cooperating with us. What can we do?" Das said.
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