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Odisha government says child marathoner Budhia Singh is not missing.
After Budhia Singh did not report to the hostel or school after June 4, hostel authorities wrote letters to his mother and 4 coaches attempted to reach him in his slum home.
The Odisha government has clarified that child marathoner Budhia Singh was not missing and was likely to return to the sports hostel at Bhubaneswar in the next four days.
"Budhia Singh's mother had yesterday told a local news channel that they are in Nayagarh. We are expecting him to return to sports hostel in 2-4 days," Sports and Youth Affairs Secretary Saswat Mishra said after the local media report that the boy was missing.
Mishra stated that Budhia did not return to the sports hostel after summer vacation last month and it was a normal occurrence as besides Budhia, 8 other sportspersons had not returned to the hostel. The sportspersons returned to the hostel within a fortnight of reopening of the SAI hostel here at Kalinga Stadium.
When Budhia did not return to hostel continued to remain absent from school, the concerned hostel authorities sent letters to his house in Salia Sahi slum. 4 coaches of the sports hostel also visited Budhia's mother's home at the slum. "Our coaches met Budhia's elder sister. She informed that they are out of Bhubaneswar," said Mishra.
"When he did not meet the date, I wrote a letter to Budhia on June 23 asking him to return to the sports hostel within a week. As I did not get a reply of my letter which I had sent through post, I wrote another letter and sent four coaches of the Sports Hostel to hand over the letter to Budhia at Salia Sahi. But the coaches did not find Budhia in his house, while his sister informed the coaches that Budhia has gone to the village and will return within four days. But till date, he has not reported to me," said Rupanwita Panda, sports hostel in-charge and Budhia's coach
Budhia Singh's neighbours claim that the boy and his mother were not seen in the slum for the last one month.
Budhia shot to fame after he successfully ran a marathon of 65 km from Puri to Bhubaneswar in 7 hours in May, 2006 at the tender age of 4 setting a record in the Limca Book of Records. However, the state government had given shelter to Budhia Singh in the sports hostel after several child rights activists alleged exploitation of the boy.
The Child Welfare Committee, Khurda, had also levelled allegations of child exploitation against Budhia's mentor and Coach Biranchi Das. The Orissa High court had then observed that considering his age and health, Budhia should not be allowed to participate in marathon.