After directing the bureaucrats in the State to turn up for the three days yoga camp that concluded a day before, the Haryana Government on Wednesday asked them to participate in International Yoga Day celebration on June 21 to be held at Chandigarh in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a letter sent from the Chief Secretary’s office to all Administrative Secretaries and Head of Departments in Haryana, the bureaucrats were asked to participate at the national level yoga event for its success.
The State Government has also opened two “Suvidha Counters” each at Main Civil Secretariat in Sector 1 and Mini Civil Secretariat in Sector 17 here for the registration of the bureaucrats for the event.
The letter said, “The Central Government has decided to celebrate International Yoga day at Chandigarh on June 21. Haryana is also co-host of this mega event. 11000 participants have already been registered from Haryana side for the event. You are requested to participate in the event for its success”.
A day before, controversy was triggered following Chief Secretary DS Dhesi’s directive asking top bureaucrats to turn up at the yoga camp organised from June 12 -14 by the State Government in Panchkula. The two-hour training session with state brand ambassador and Yoga Guru Ramdev was held in the run-up to International Yoga Day celebrations in Chandigarh.
Some bureaucrats had criticised the directive stating that the move would reduce them to RSS stooges. However, only five additional chief secretaries had turned up for the yoga camp while all others gave the event a miss.
Following the controversy, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij had clarified that the participation of officers in the 3-day yoga camp was not compulsory.
He had said, “This was a government programme, not a RSS programme. Many officers attended it, but there was no compulsion. The programme was just to give knowledge of Yoga and also to make everyone familiar in protocol of the programme, which will be organised on June 21 in Chandigarh.”
Notably, around 30,000 participants are expected to take part in the one-hour event at Chandigarh on June 21, out of which about 10,000 each will be from Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana.