States gear up to mark Day of Yoga

NEW DELHI: Thousands of people across the country are gearing up to celebrate the fourth edition of the International Yoga Day on Thursday with mass sessions of exercise and meditation.

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the celebrations at Ramabai Ambedkar Sabha Sthal in Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow as thousands of people across the country struck various poses and talked about the benefits of the ancient physical and spiritual discipline during events to celebrate the day.

The United Nations declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga in 2014 after Modi called for the day to be adopted as a global celebration of yoga, an ancient practice that began in India more than 5,000 years ago.

Here’s how the states are planning to mark the day:

UTTARAKHAND

Modi will lead the main event at the sprawling campus of the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun, in which over 50,000 citizens are expected to participate.

Uttarakhand’s minister of higher education Dhan Singh Rawat claimed the government has received registrations “more than expected”. School and college students will also participate. The gate of FRI will be opened from 12am to 5am for the programme that would begin at 6.30am. The PM is scheduled to spend over an hour at the venue.

TELANGANA

The main event in Telangana is being organised by the state government in coordination with the Union ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH). The GMC Balayogi Stadium at Gachibowli is the main venue in Hyderabad, where around 4,000 people are expected to participate from 6.30am to 8pm.

State AYUSH commissioner Dr Rajendra Reddy said similar events would be organised in all the districts of Telangana.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s state unit will also organise celebrations at the Amberpet Municipal Grounds in Hyderabad.

Bharatiya Prani Mitra Sangh, along with Jeevraksha Trust and other animal welfare organisations, will hold yoga sessions from 8am to 9am for around 2,000 school students and other enthusiasts at Exhibition Grounds.

RAJASTHAN

Kota, popular as the coaching hub of the country, is eyeing to make a Guinness world record for organising yoga event with maximum participants on International Yoga Day on June 21.

Around 200,000 people are expected to attend the main event at RAC ground, which will be led by Ramdev. There will be smaller events in other districts. The South Western Command of the army is also hosting an event at Cavalry Ground in Jaipur.

GUJARAT

At least 12.5 million people in over 43,000 centres across the state are expected to participate.

In Ahmedabad’s Sardar Patel Stadium, nearly 1,000 differently abled children will perform “silent yoga”. They will be instructed through Bluetoothenabled headphones at the event to be attended by state ministers and governor OP Kohli.

The participants will include 4,082 pregnant women and 8,732 differently abled children.

BIHAR

Around one lakh people are expected to participate in Bihar. Governor Satya Pal Malik and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi will also attend the event, which is being organised in collaboration with the state government at Patliputra Sports Complex, Kankarbagh, in Patna.

This will be the first time that the state government would organise the function. Earlier, when the JD(U) was part of the Grand Alliance, no functions were organised by the state government.

Swami Vaishampayan, a Yoga expert, has been invited to conduct the session.

HARYANA

State’s minister of sports Anil Vij has said nearly 120,000 people are expected to participate in events across Haryana. The main venues are Panchkula and Jhajjar where governor Kaptan Singh Solanki and chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar are the chief guests, respectively .