BHUBANESWAR: Various organisations in the city geared up for International Yoga Day celebration on Thursday with a series of events and camps in parks, auditoriums and open fields. Union civil aviation minister Jayant Sinha will be coming to the city to participate in a mega yoga camp to be held in the city to mark the occasion.
“Union minister Jayant Sinha will participate in a yoga camp to be organised by Patanjali Yoga Samiti at Kasturba Sikhya Kendra field and encourage people to practice yoga daily for a healthy body and mind,” said BJP spokesperson Golak Mohapatra.
Yoga Mahotsav Samiti, a state-level organisation has planned to conduct yoga camps simultaneously at 10,000 places across the state. “We have conducted several rounds of training camps and trained around 18,000 trainers for the Yoga day celebration who will coordinate the programme in rural and interior areas. We have also tied up with 194 voluntary organisations to make the programme successful,” said president of the samiti, Pratap Chandra Sarangi. The samiti is expecting participation of 10 lakh people in the yoga camps.
Prayaas Yoga will host a yoga camp at Buddha Mandir at 6.30 am on Thursday where hundreds of yoga practitioners will practice yoga asanas. Similarly Art of Living organisation will conduct yoga camps at various places across the state while Yoga department of
Sri Sri University will conduct a yoga programme. Blissful Yoga Centre will observe the day at Indira Gandhi Park.
Due to extended summer vacations many schools will give the yoga day celebrations a miss this year. However, some city schools have decided to observe the day with participation of teachers, staff and NCC cadets.
“We have informed all students of the school for the event but it is totally voluntary and there is no compulsion on children to attend. We have also planned to finish the programme by 7 am so that children who will participate will not feel inconvenience due to rising temperature,” said a spokesperson of DAV Public School, Chandrasekharpur.
State government schools have not been participating in the yoga day celebrations for the last three years.