During previous visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Chandigarh, there were complaints from several quarters but this time, the UT Administration managed to organise a successful national level day event on Tuesday without any hiccups.
Even as a large number of VVIPs and more than 30000 people from Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana gathered at the high security zone –Capital Complex here, the foolproof security arrangements and a large number of volunteers deputed at the venue ensured that everything goes well during the one hour long event to celebration second international yoga day.
Thousands of colourful mats were laid out in the Capitol Complex where thousands of people were seen twisting, bending and stretching with the Prime Minister.
From subtle decorations at the Capitol Complex to the crowd managements, the UT Administration left no stone unturned to make the national level yoga day event a success in the city.
Barring few goof-ups like denying entry to few participants, bringing the participants as early as 3 am to the venue, everything went well for the UT Administration this time.
Earlier this year in January, Narendra Modi had visited the city to receive French President Francois Hollande here, who was the chief guest at the Republic Day Parade in New Delhi.
last year, Modi’s visit to Chandigarh was a fiasco, with schools shut down, people asked to remain indoors, and even the crematorium made inaccessible. The lockdown, which resembled a curfew, led to public outrage at the inconvenience caused. All these measures, which caused residents much harassment, drew considerable flak, forcing Modi to tweet and apologize and even order a probe into the matter.
Meanwhile, the UT Administration seemed to have learned from the past mistakes as the UT authorities ensured successful organization of the yoga day event here. For the crowd management, UT had deputed police officials, duty magistrates, supervisors, sector officers, team leaders, group leaders and volunteers from nirankari mission.
After the event ended, civic body officers alongwith 200 cleaned the whole Capital Complex, various parkings and roads leading to venue in about two hours time. In addition to this, all the pools/ water bodies at the venue were also cleaned. Prior to the event, 300 dustbins were placed to avoid littering at the venue and participants were encouraged to keep the venue clean ‘
Apart from the grand event at Capitol Complex on Tuesday morning, yoga was also performed at 100 different locations across the city through live lED screens.
As a curtain raiser for the grand event, the Administration had organized a 4 days Chandigarh Yoga Festival from June 9-12. The Yoga Festival witnessed a series of national and international level events, which revolved around Yoga, its history, importance and evolution.
The Administration had also unveiled the Mascot for Yoga Festival—Indian Grey Mongoose named Yogi, Mascot is the state animal of Chandigarh. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder, Art of living and Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev were also invited for the Yoga Festival.
The city residents were also introduced to the 360 degree view photo experience exclusively. Through this, Chandigarh Administration became the first Indian government body to introduce the 360 degree view live photo feature to its numerous portals.