VISAKHAPATNAM/SRIKAKULAM:Yoga enthusiasts and practitioners turned up in a large numbers to participate in the mass yoga events conducted in Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts to mark the first International Yoga Day Sunday. Fortunately, the weather, which was expected to play spoilsport, turned in favour of Yoga in majority of the places in the region. However, the organisers took precautions by organising the events indoors.
From schoolchildren to elderly persons, people from different walks of life participated in the Yoga events organised across the city and arrived at the venues before the sunrise. Majority of the programmes were conducted between 5 am and 8 am. While regular practitioners looked relaxed, those who tried their hands for the first time came out exhausted. However, they vowed to make yoga part of their daily lives.
The Swarna Bharati Indoor Stadium here was packed to capacity where the district administration and Andhra University organised the yoga event. Led by Civil Aviation minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, several people’s representatives and officials including minister Ch Ayyannapatrudu, MPs K Haribabu, M Srinivasa Rao, district collector N Yuvaraj, police commissioner Amit Garg, GVMC commissioner Pravin Kumar, AU vice-chancellor GSN Raju and several other city elite attended the event. Faculty members of AU Yoga Village explained the importance of each Asana and helped the participants practice them for about one-and-a-half hours.
On the occasion, Ashok Gajapati Raju said that yoga made foreign countries turn towards India for inner peace and health. He said that he practises yoga and added that all people should adopt it as part of their lives. Ayyannapatrudu felt that it should be made part of the school education.
In Vizianagaram district, the Yoga Day celebrations were formally inaugurated by Rural Development and Housing minister Kimidi Mrunalini at a kalyanamandapam, where she emphasised the need to follow a healthy lifestyle by practising yoga daily. Zilla parishad chairperson Sobha Swati Rani, district collector MM Naik and several others took part. About 15 persons who have been striving hard to promote yoga in the district were felicitated on the occasion.
The celebrations were organised on a massive scale in Srikakulam district with over 2,000 students and yoga enthusiasts from different organisations attending the event in large numbers at Kodi Rammurthy Stadium. The event commenced at 7 am with noted yoga guru M Ramarao presenting various yoga asanas and making the audience practice them for about 45 minutes. Srikakulam MP K Rammohan Naidu, ZP chairperson Ch Dhanalakshmi, district collector P Lakshmi Nrusimham and others did the asanas on the occasion.
