Kakrahia: This wrestlers’ village hopes to wriggle out of woes after PM Modi adopted it

The village is grappling with lack of facilities such as bank, post office, primary health centre, senior secondary school or a degree college

A group of young wrestlers, trying to master wrestling moves in over a century-old traditional arena in Uttar Pradesh’s Kakrahia village, have a common goal – becoming an international grappler.

A dilapidated road filled with potholes connects Kakrahia with Varanasi(Rajesh Kumar/HT Photo)

However, their village itself is grappling with lack of facilities such as bank, post office, primary health centre, senior secondary school or a degree college.

The village, known for its wrestlers and wrestling arena, has no public transport facility and the connecting road to Varanasi, the district headquarters, has bumpy stretches.

But chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s visit to the village on Sunday has filled the villagers with a new zeal as he announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will adopt Kakrahia under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.

The village falls under Modi’s Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency. This will be the third village after Jayapur and Nagpur to be adopted by the Prime Minister in this constituency.

The budding wrestlers now hope that their village will have a stadium equipped with judo and wresting courts.

A young wrestler, Omkar (14), said, “I have never been to Jayapur but my guru Ravindra Singh informed us that several facilities came up there after it was adopted by the PM.”

“I am hopeful similar facilities will be available in our village… There will be a provision for a stadium with a wrestling court,” he said expectantly.

Budding wrestlers Sandeep, Ankit and Veer – all in the age bracket of 12 to 15 years – hope Kakrahia would turn into a smart village soon.

Pawan Kumar Singh, 22, who trains the grapplers in the absence of head trainer Ravindra Singh, said: “If a state-of-the-art stadium equipped with wrestling court and a gym comes up in the village, it will help the grapplers in a big way. They will be able to practice as per the requirement of the competition.”

Ravindra Singh, famous as ‘pahalwan’, is known for providing free coaching to budding wrestlers. He has trained Ramasrey Yadav, Jamuna Yadav, Veerendra Gupta, Shambhu Pal, Kanhaiya Yadav and others who have participated in national events and won medals.

Veerendra Gupta joined the Indian Army while three others secured jobs with the SSB, CRPF and the CISF.

The nearest hospital is in Jagatpur or in Varanasi which is 10 kilometres away from the village. Secondary school and Jagatpur Degree College are also 10 kms away from Kakrahia.

“I hope we will get the facilities that are being provided in other villages adopted by the PM,” Ravindra said.

The news has created a buzz. Till recently, only 40 households had electricity connection but four days ago, the power department officials ensured the villagers that every house would get electricity, said former village head Manoj Singh.

He said two days ago, officials from sports department visited the village and carried out measurement on a plot of land for construction of a stadium.

“Jal Nigam has installed a tube well in the village to ensure water supply in each house,” he added, hoping the PM’s move would bring about a positive change in the village.

He was hopeful the adoption would also create employment avenues in the village.

PM Modi to adopt third village in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi

A veterinary hospital is also in the villagers’ wish list, as farming is the main source of their livelihood.

An ‘Anand Ghar’ has been built on the premises of the village’s primary school by a company under corporate social responsibility (CSR). Iron benches bearing the name of PM Modi have also been put up at various locations in the village.

Pointing towards the road that connects Kakrahia with Varanasi, a villager Ramesh Singh Chandel said: “This 8-km long road connects our village with Lahartara in Varanasi. It is in a bad shape and needs to be repaired. The officials took a detour to bring the CM to the village.”

About 70 per cent households in the village, with a population of about 2000, have toilets. Most of the villagers are Patels.

The community has a sizeable presence in the rural assembly segments of the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency. To woo the Kurmi caste, the BJP has earlier forged an alliance with the Apna Dal and reaped the benefit.