Political leaders from both Houses of Parliament on Sunday met each other on the cricket field for a noble cause.

The “TB Mukt Bharat Awareness Cricket Match,” a 20-over cricket match, was played between Lok Sabha Speaker XI and Rajya Sabha Chairman XI, to promote awareness about tuberculosis and stress the importance of public health in India’s road to become a ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.

BJP MP Anurag Thakur led the Lok Sabha Speaker XI team, while Union Minister Kiren Rijiju was the skipper of Rajya Sabha Chairman XI.

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“With the slogan of fitness…this event has been planned to invigorate individuals via sports. I believe everyone will be energetic. “Our mantras are ‘TB Free India’ and ‘Fit India Movement’,” Union minister Kiren Rijiju told ANI.

“Without fitness, you cannot serve your country. “You need to be mentally and physically fit,” he added.

Lok Sabha Speaker XI’s skipper Anurag Thakur stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a goal of making India tuberculosis-free by 2025, ahead of the worldwide aim of 2030. 

“If you see from 2015 till date, there has been a 38 per cent drop in TB-related deaths in India. There has been an 18 per cent drop in new cases. This number is around 8 per cent globally,” Thakur was quoted by ANI as saying.

“This means India is doing better than the rest of the world. But India is the most populated country. There is a treatment for it. The government provides free medicines and provides ₹1000 for it. The cases are tracked as well,” he added.

Thakur further stated that such events will be conducted in many states in the future, with MPs teams playing alongside MLAs, so that every public figure is informed and makes others aware as well. 

“We shall carry out the vow to create India TB-free…We shall accomplish Prime Minister Modi’s aim of making India TB-free…I appreciate how wonderfully all of the players performed. Hitting a tonne vs not hitting a tonne is a different story. The century is irrelevant; the sporting spirit driving the game is to create a TB-free India,” he said.

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha commended the initiative, saying, “It is wonderful that MPs from both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha have come together for such a noble cause.” I want to see more efforts in which political leaders from all parties come together to fight for vital causes like this.”

The Lok Sabha Speaker XI defeated the Rajya Sabha Chairman XI by 73 runs. Anurag Thakur scored 111 runs.

Deepender Singh Hooda, a Congress MP, was named the match’s best bowler, while BJP MP Nishikant Dubey was named the best fielder.