Budhia's coach to take the boy to other state

BHUBANESWAR: In a fresh twist to the ongoing drama involving marathon kid Budhia Singh, his coach Biranchi Das on Sunday said he was thinking of shifting to some other state with the five-year-old boy as he was being 'harassed' by the Orissa government.

"If this continues, I will have no option but to shift to some other state where the boy could be developed into an olympian in congenial atmosphere," Das told reporters here.

The state government had recently said that the boy would not be allowed to run in view of the findings on the health status of the child prodigy.

Minister for Women and Child Development Pramila Mallick even said that as forcing the child to run amounted to "cruelty", his coach could be prosecuted under the existing provisions of law leading to his arrest.

The report of the Khurda District Child Welfare Committee which was recently submitted to the government had opined against the road show marathons being organised involving the child should be stopped in future.