The 25th National Youth Festival, scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Pondicherry University on January 12, will now be held in virtual mode entirely, following a spike in COVID-19 cases and the spread of the Omicron variant across several States.
Confirming this, Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar said the last-hour change was communicated by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports after evaluating the gravity of the COVID-19 situation and the rapid transmission of the new variant.
The Ministry, in a communication, instructed all Chief Secretaries to not send participants to attend the event physically. It was decided to cut the festival short to three days from the originally planned five days.
As of now, the Prime Minister is still expected to inaugurate the event virtually. However, the actual schedule might be tweaked as a physical visit is ruled out, sources said.
As recently as Wednesday, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur, had visited Puducherry to launch the logo and mascot the “Saksham Yuva-Shashakt Yuva”, and also surveyed arrangements for the inaugural ceremony.
The festival was billed to have 7,500 participants to mark the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence.
"The decision was probably arrived at, taking into account the transmission risk associated with a large contingent of participants undertaking travel to Puducherry from several States," Mr. Ashwani Kumar said.
Though the administration had undertaken various measures toward enforcing stringent COVID-19 protocol for the event, having a large number of participants from various States in transit at a time when the third wave was sweeping through the country would have been deemed to be too high a risk, officials said.
Fresh COVID-19 cases have been increasing recently in the Union Territory and Opposition parties have been calling for the cancellation or postponement of the youth festival. “It is expected that a larger number of youth would now be able to attend the event in virtual mode. However, there is bound to be a cut-back in the programmes, particularly cultural performances, with the truncation of the festival to a three-day affair,” an official said.
