Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 18

The authorities are going over the top to ensure that the International Yoga Day function in Chandigarh on June 21 is a success. For, 2,000 students of Mohali and Kharar are being held ‘captive’. They will spend three nights at the school, sleeping on the floor mats.They will be woken up at 3 am daily for rehearsal at the yoga venue.

More than 100 buses, including 50 each from the PRTC’s Chandigarh depot and Punjab Roadways, will ferry these students and government employees to the venue, never mind if the commuters are put to inconvenience or if the public facility incurs a loss of Rs 25 lakh in three days. Circulars have also been issued by universities and colleges, asking the employees to hold a yoga function on the premises on June 21. The rehearsals will begin tomorrow. In Ludhiana, Guru Nanak Stadium is being readied for a “successful yoga show”.

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Schoolboys are being lodged at senior secondary schools in Mohali, Kurali and Kharar and the girls at Manav Mangal Senior Secondary School, Mohali. A mela-like atmosphere pervaded the government senior secondary school in Phase III, Mohali, this evening, with teachers marking attendance of students amid the din caused by screeching furniture being pushed into a corner to make space for mats. Outside, a cook and his helpers were seen preparing dinner.

Upset, parents complained that this was no way to treat children. “We tried to reason it out with officials but they said orders had to be obeyed," said an anxious mother as she tried to find out the number of bathrooms available at the school for the students.

“I was on a vacation when I was summoned by the school principal. The principal was summoned by the District Education Officer, and the latter by the DC,” said an exasperated official.

Explaining the decision to keep back the students in schools, a senior functionary said, “It will be easier to ferry them to the venue for rehearsals. Otherwise, they would have to reach on their own or be picked by buses from home.”