Wrestlers’ hub moves from flower power to premier attention

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will adopt Kakarahia village, known as a wrestlers’ hub, under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), sources say.

It will be the third village to be adopted by PM after Jayapur and Nagepur. All three villages are situated in the PM’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi. Besides vegetables, Kakarahia is known for the growth of vegetables and flowers.

Budding and veteran wrestlers are delighted over the news.

Bharatiya Janata Party MP CR Patil visited Kakarahia and informed a wrestler Ravindra Singh about the development. The formal announcement is most likely on October 24, when Modi is scheduled to visit his parliamentary constituency. Patil represents Navsari (Gujarat) in the Lok Sabha.

“Patil, along with a few BJP leaders, visited the village around a few days back. He said the PM would adopt our village under SAGY. Adoption would ensure facilities like a government hospital and potable water supply which our village lacks,” said Ravindra Singh.

Singh said his forefathers set up a wrestling arena here around 250 years ago. Over the years, the arena trained a large number of wrestlers who earned fame in national and international wrestling competitions. Singh is carrying forward the legacy of training the budding wrestlers of the village and the adjoining areas. They gather every morning at the arena to learn new moves.

“I have heard that the PM will adopt our village. I thank the PM for looking at our village. He should ensure that our village gets a primary health centre so locals don’t have to run to Varanasi even for minor ailments,” said another veteran wrestler Bhuwal Singh, 72.

Budding grapplers Siddhant Singh, Vikas Singh, Santosh Prajapati, and Suresh Kumar Yadav have an entirely different wish list. They want a state-of-the- art wrestling training centre and judo training centre in their village.“We travel to the stadium in Sigra (Varanasi) every day where we learn wrestling moves on the mat. If we have a modern training centre, it will save us a lot of time,” Vikas said.

“I hope we will have a judo training centre here in the next couple of months after the PM makes a formal announcement about adopting our village,” Yadav said.

Ravindra Singh revealed that Patil had assured him of constructing a judo hall and a wrestling hall in the village. Kakarahia has a population of about 1800, including 1,200 Patels and 200 Rajputs, Gonds and Rajbhars each. There are 1,200 voters here and the village has a primary and upper primary school.

Read more: Wi-Fi services inaugurated in PM Modi’s adopted villages in Varanasi