Kila Raipur bullock cart race: Thakur’s help sought

Ludhiana: A delegation of Kila Raipur Sports Society and BJP national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill on Wednesday met Union sports minister Anurag Thakur, seeking his intervention to resume bullock cart race at the annual Kila Raipur Rural Olympics.
Apprising the minister about the cultural significance of the game, they urged him to seek the President’s assent to The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2019, to pave way for resumption of the bullock cart race.
Shergill, whose maternal family belongs to Kila Raipur, told his party’s Union minister: “These rural games have been organised continuously since 1933 in Ludhiana’s Kila Raipur village. The popularity of these rural games has increased a lot, and today they are known all over the world by the name of Mini Olympics. The most popular sport is bullock cart race, which was banned in 2014 on the order of the Supreme Court on the plea of PETA.”
He informed him that the Punjab assembly had passed the bill to allow bullock cart racing in around 12,000 villages of Punjab, which regularly host such games.
Surinder Singh Grewal, president of Kila Raipur Sports Society said that Thakur assured them he would get the required permission.