The Bankura district administration will promote 25 persons from the Junglemahal blocks to take part in the International Marathon and this was declared by the district officials during a ‘Safe Drive, Save Life’ marathon arranged by the district police surrounding the 11 km stretched water body here this morning. The participants in the junglemahal marathon were from nine Police Stations, one Women Police Station in eight administrative blocks in Khatra Sub Division of Bankura’s junglemahal area in which 2200 male and 500 women joined from the remote villages which were Maoist infested dens, barely 10 years ago.
Tarak Mandi, Kinkar Duley and Soumitra Acharya grabbed the top three ranks in 10 km marathon for men and Pinku Sinha Mahapatra, Kakali Duley and Sonali Duley grabbed the top three positions in 5 km marathon for women. The SP, Bankura, Mr Koteswar Rao said: “We are overwhelmed seeing the spirit of hundreds of men and women those completed the marathon even though they knew that they were not going to bag the prizes.” He added: “Chief Minister has instructed us to hold mass awareness about Safe Drive and Save Life and we chose to organise this marathon here surrounding the dam where tourist influx is recorded during the tourist seasons and hundreds of vehicles rush to the hotels surrounding the dam.”
The district magistarate Dr Umashankar S said: “As we have seen the courage of the Junglemahal youths, we have decided to stand beside them and we shall chose 25 participants and promote them for the International Marathon. We shall also provide the required sports equipment to them.”