Bajrang Punia Urges Sports Ministry To Restart Wrestling Activities

Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia on Saturday urged the Sports Ministry to restart the wrestling activities in the country with just seven months remaining for next year's Paris Games, and said no one seemed to have taken the preparations for the quadrennial showpiece seriously. Wrestling action has come to a standstill for the last several months owing to the turmoil within the fraternity following the grapplers' protests against former president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Even the election of a new Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) committee could not restore normalcy as the Sports Ministry suspended the Sanjay Singh-led panel citing the violation of its own constitution in announcing the national U-15 and U-20 Championships.

"Wrestling activities have come to a standstill for the last several months. Neither has any nationals been held nor have any camps been organised to prepare the players (for Paris Olympics)," Punia wrote on his 'X' account.