PM to grace Int'l Yoga Day fete at Vizag

Vijayawada: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had played a key role in globalizing interest in yoga by getting the United Nations to declare June 21 as International Day of Yoga, will participate in the celebrations to be held on Saturday in Visakhapatnam in which five lakh people are expected to take part.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu declared this while speaking to media persons here on Thursday. The Chief Minister said that yoga practice should become a part of daily life. Everyone should practice yoga as it would help prevent diseases. He said that there was tremendous response to the one-month yoga practice campaign in the state, with 2.39 crore people registering, against the target of 2 crore people.

The Chief Minister said that arrangements had been made at Visakhapatnam to celebrate the International Day of Yoga in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate. He said that 3.9 lakh yoga seats had been arranged right from RK beach to Bhogapuram. He said the event would help set a world record meriting entry in Guinness World Records.

Besides,there would be live coverage of the event. The Chief Minister said yoga would be practiced simultaneously at 1.30 lakh places in the state and at eight lakh places across the country. He said five lakh yoga mats and five lakh Yoga T shifts would be distributed among those who attend the International Day of Yoga celebrations at Vizag. He said transport arrangements had been made for people and Wi-Fi would be available at 326 places at the venue in Visakhapatnam.

The Chief Minister said that the state government would introduce yoga practice for students right from 9th class. Stating that Yoga practice was the best alternative for preventing health issues, he said that, with the help of Bill Gates Foundation, it will be observed in AP as a proof of concept. Simultaneously, a non-profit organisation would be set up to take yoga practice everywhere in the state to improve health of people. The Chief Minister said K Muralidhar of AP had launched a start-up and come up with ‘Yogiy-a’, smart yoga app based on artificial intelligence.

Muralidhar, explaining its features, said that sensor-fitted mat would be connected via blue tooth so that the smart app and mat can together help teach people to practice yoga in the correct manner.