post news network, Bhubaneswar, June 20: Citizens of the city are ready to celebrate the first-ever International Day of Yoga at different venues in the city, Sunday with grandeur.
The Ayush directorate here has invited as many as 2,100 volunteers, who will demonstrate the various yoga postures to the audience present in the Kalinga Stadium here at 7am.
“All the volunteers who will demonstrate the yoga postures are trained practitioners. About 1,600 of them are members of the National Cadet Corps wings of different colleges. Others are practitioners of yoga of various age-groups. All are invited to join the celebrations,” said Basudev Bahinipati, director Ayush.
The state-level celebration will be presided over by the health and family welfare minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak. Sports and youth affairs minister Sudam Marndi, culture and tourism minister Ashok Panda, higher education minister Pradip Panigrahi and chief secretary Gokul Chandra Pati, among others will be present on the occasion.
“The call is from the Union government and we have decided to celebrate the day in a grand manner. Earlier, we had also decided to launch the National Ayush Mission on this day, but due to some unavoidable reasons, we have postponed the date of the launch,” said Bahinipati.
Other voluntary organisations, small, medium and big, are also gearing up to celebrate the day, which was recognised by the United Nations last year, in style. The Patanjali Yoga Pitha, which has its campus in Khurda, will celebrate the day at Nayapalli here, where the members of the organisation are expecting a participation of about 2,000 volunteers to demonstrate various yoga postures.
Gajapati Maharaj Divya Singh Dev and Union rural development minister Sudarsan Bhagat are invited to be the guests in this celebration. Freedom fighter Dolagobinda Pradhan and Bhabani Sankar Pattnaik will also join the celebrations Sunday.
Members of the Saheed Nagar Vishnu Mandir have also called citizens living in and around the area to participate in the yoga demonstrations that will take place in the temple premises at 7:00 pm.
“We have instructors who will demonstrate yoga postures as defined by Vivekananda and the people present will follow those,” said Devraj Mahapatra, secretary of the temple.