Yoga sessions take centre stage

Visakhapatnam: With the ‘International Yoga Day’ just a day away, ministers, district officials emphasise the need to make the record-breaking event a grand success.

Apart from intense rehearsals, beautification works and clean up exercises are being carried out at several parts of the city.

Encouraging people to take part in one of the biggest and greatest events to be held under the leadership of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, ministers, district officials and department heads come together to make it a grand success. With the largest ever participation for the IYD celebrations, the event scheduled in Visakhapatnam on June 21 is expected to break a host of records.

On Thursday, a walkathon was organised under the aegis of the AYUSH department and district administration in the city to make people understand the magnitude of the event and encourage them to contribute to its hassle-free conduct. AP Ministersr Dola Sree Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy, Satya Kumar Yadav and S Savitha reiterated that the event is a household celebration and exhorted people to become part of it. The walkathon, highlighting the goodness of yoga, began at Andhra University Convention hall to Vishwapriya function all. “Allot an hour a day for yoga practice to derive holistic health benefits,” the ministers underlined. With a target of 2 crore participation in the IYD event, the ministers informed that the set target was achieved within a short span of time.

Ministry of AYUSH secretary Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha exhorted people to participate in the celebrations enthusiastically. Programmes are planned out to bring yoga closer to people and encourage them to practice it on a daily basis. The walkathon saw participation of Mayor Peela Srinivasa Rao, MLC Vepada Chiranjeevi Rao, among others.

As the beach stretch, especially along the Visakhapatnam east constituency and Bheemunipatnam segment, has been made a no-vehicle zone, commuters take diverted routes. Following which, traffic bottlenecks are witnessed in various junctions.

Waltair of East Coast Railway organised awareness rallies across various locations over the division. The awareness rallies saw participation from sportspersons, railway staff, scouts and guides, civil defence personnel and family members from local colonies promoting greater awareness and engagement in the practice of yoga.

On June 21, the International Yoga Day, a large-scale yoga session will be conducted at the Waltair Railway Cricket Stadium.

Making students understand the importance of practicing yoga, trainers organised a session for the girls at the Government Residential School for Visually-Challenged Girls in Visakhapatnam. The students were given training in various asanas on the occasion in which they took part enthusiastically.

As part of the IYD celebrations, Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vihar students gear up for Yogandhra 2025 with great enthusiasm.

800 Students studying from Classes VII to X took part in a pre-yoga session under the guidance of yoga instructors. The students have been undergoing training sessions for the past one week.

At SR Digi School, students practiced at a session organised at the campus on Thursday. Headmistress Y Padmaja explained the benefits of yoga and its importance to the students who were given training in Surya namaskar and other asanas, pranayama techniques.

Ahead of IYD celebrations, a session was organised by Nature Cure Hospital at Maharanipeta. Led by instructor Sistla Srilakshmi, yoga sessions are carried out at the hospital premises on a regular basis.

The instructor expressed happiness over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s participation over Yogandhra-2025 and stated that the large-scale promotion of yoga aids in reaching out to more communities and encouraging them to consider yoga as an integral part of life.