Centre shortlists 5 cities, including Mysuru, for International Yoga Day event
New Delhi: The Centre has shortlisted five cities -- Delhi, Shimla, Mysuru, Ahmedabad and Ranchi -- for holding the national programme of the International Yoga Day this year.
It will be the government's first mega public event after Narendra Modi became prime minister for a second term.
Names of the four cities have been sent to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) which will finalise the venue of the main function of the International Yoga Day to be held on June 21, official sources said.
"We have already started the preparations and the event will be organised in a large scale," a senior AYUSH ministry official said.
If national capital is selected as the venue, it would be hosting the event for the second time. Delhi had hosted the main event of the Yoga Day in 2015.
In the lead-up to the event, a two-day yoga mahotsav is being organised in Delhi by the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga starting Saturday. It will be attended by about 10,000 people, including yoga teachers, professionals, enthusiasts among others.
"The aim is to build an atmosphere of yoga in the lead-up to the main event and sensitise the people about the June 21 function," the official said.
The United Nations declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga in 2014 after Modi called for the day to be adopted as a global celebration of yoga, an ancient practice that began in India more than 5,000 years ago.
Last year, the main event of the International Day of Yoga was held at the ground of Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated.
The first International Yoga Day celebration was organised at Rajpath in New Delhi on June 21, 2015, in which representatives of 191 countries took part. In 2016, the main function was held in Chandigarh and in 2017 it was held in Lucknow.
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Air India to fly back remaining 30 passengers of cancelled Phuket-Delhi flight at earliest
New Delhi, Nov 19: Air India will fly back at the earliest around 30 remaining passengers who were among those stranded in Phuket since last three days after the flight from the Thailand's city to Delhi was cancelled due to a technical issue, according to sources.
Some Air India passengers took to social media to complain that they have been stuck at Phuket since November 16.
In a statement on Tuesday, Air India regretted the inconvenience caused to the passengers of flight AI377 that was to operate from Phuket to Delhi on November 16 after it was cancelled due to a technical issue.
The source in the know said there were around 144 passengers booked in that flight and most of them have returned. Around 30 remaining passengers will be flown back at the earliest, mostly on Wednesday, they added.
Further, the source said the technical issue in the aircraft concerned has been rectified.
"While our staff on the ground made an effort to minimise their inconvenience, providing all on-ground assistance including hotel accommodations and meals, some of the guests were also accommodated on alternatively available flights. Passengers were also offered options for full refunds on cancellation and complimentary rescheduling," the airline said in the statement.
