It was ‘marathon’ Sunday on Beach Road in Puducherry, beginning with Kids Marathon organised by La Fitmiss, a health and fitness studio, in association with Department of Tourism at 5 a.m., followed by Run for Rio organised by the Directorate of School Education at 7.30 a.m.
Chaos
It was chaos on Beach Road in the morning. Children between 3 and 15, who had arrived to participate in the Kids Marathon, were made to wait for more than an hour for Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi to inaugurate the programme.
The badly organised event not only infuriated the parents but left the children waiting at the starting point near Gandhi statue on the Beach Road. The wait was so long that many children decided to stay with their parents than participate in the run.
“I think even a bull race is better organised than this marathon. How can the organisers make the children stand for more than an hour? If they wanted the Lieutenant Governor to inaugurate the event at 6.30 a.m., they should have asked us to bring the children to the venue at 6.15 and not at 5,” said Senthil, a parent.
The volunteers left the parents to gather around the children, suffocating them further. “There should be at least enough volunteers to control the crowd and leave the track for the children to run. There is no point in organising such a marathon,” said another parent.
After a long wait, the children ran after Lieutenant Governor flagged off the Kids Marathon. By the end of the marathon, the Gandhi Thidal was strewn with plastic waste, water bottles and waste.
Special Correspondent writes from Karaikal:
A marathon ‘Run for RIO’ was organised under the auspices of Perunthalaivar Kamarajar College of Engineering and Technology for a distance of four km from the college campus to the police station at Tirunallar.
A. Kumar, Principal (in-charge) of the college and Manjam Prasad Rao, Superintendent of Police, Karaikal North, inaugurated the run.
Achutha, a student, said that the marathon run aimed at sensitising the masses to the importance of World Youth Day, significance of Indian Independence movement and the 70th anniversary of the Indian Independence.
