Tight security ahead of yoga day event in Chandigarh

Chandigarh: Around 5,000 police personnel will keep a hawk-eye vigil on the International Yoga Day event on June 21 in Chandigarh, to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Tight security arrangements will be made for the event, official sources said, adding that around 5,000 police personnel will be deployed to avoid any untoward incident.

The security around the main venue has also been increased ahead of the event. The UT Police has asked for additional police force from Punjab and Haryana apart from the paramilitary forces, a senior police official said. A team of the Special Protection Group (SPG) will land in the city to review the security arrangements, he said.

The main event, which is being held at Capitol Complex, is likely to be attended by around 30,000 people out of the total 1,20,000 who have registered themselves, UT Chandigarh's Home Secretary Anurag Aggarwal said on Friday. The Prime Minister is likely to arrive here on June 20, he said.

A series of programmes are being held in the run-up to the mega-event, Aggarwal said.

"We held a yoga festival from June 9-12, which was inaugurated by Punjab and Haryana Governor and UT Administrator Kaptan Singh Solanki, in which (Art of Living founder) Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was the guest of honour. We also held an academic programme, which was also inaugurated by Governor Solanki," he said.

The Chandigarh's Home Secretary said earlier, as part of the build-up to the mega event, world's first 3-D impressions of yoga were displayed at Sukhna lake. Yoga flash-mob and moonlight yoga were also organised ahead of the event. A 'yoga run' has been organised here for tomorrow, he said.

Aggarwal said the participants at the International Yoga Day event will be issued special radio frequency tags in order to track their attendance and secure the venue.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) cards will have details including name, Aadhaar number, photo, gender and age of each of the participants. There will also be a selfie zone at the venue, which is in line with the local administration's effort to impart a tech-savvy feel to the event.

Meanwhile, besides Home Secretary Aggarwal, UT Adviser Parimal Rai, Deputy Commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi, who is nodal officer for the event, IGP Tajinder Luthra and UT Chief Engineer Mukesh Anand are overseeing the arrangements for the big event, which includes coordination with Punjab and Haryana.

This will be the Prime Minister's second visit to the 'Capitol Complex', which was designed by Chandigarh's founder-architect Le Corbusier, within six months.

Modi hosted French President Francois Hollande at the venue on January 24 this year. In the run-up to the mega event, neighbouring Haryana has also held a series of events.

A few days back, a 3-day State Level Yoga Training Camp was organised in Panchkula in which Haryana's brand ambassador for Yoga and Ayurveda Ramdev imparted training to the participants including Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Ministers, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries, MLAs, Chief Secretary and other senior officers.