Panaji (Goa): Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar led the celebrations – International Yoga Day, in Goa even as a number of dignitaries and thousands of enthusiasts across the State joined the early morning session.
Chief Secretary Dharmendra Singh, Director General of Police Muktesh Chadner and many others also took part in the main event held at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium at 7:30am. CM Parrikar attended led the session after inaugurating Yoga Workshop at Panaji OCmmunity Centre at 6am.
“We should practice yoga every day and it’s not just for physical fitness but mental wellbeing too. We need to make yoga part of our routine culture,” Parrikar told the gathering. He then took to twitter stating, “Yoga help us live healthier lives. Greetings on #InternationalYogaDay” that received more than 1,300 likes and over 300 retweets.
Various schools also conducted yoga sessions before beginning the classes in the morning. The BJP-led government is toying with the idea to introduce yoga as part of value education in the curriculum of the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. “Goa Board has become easy compared to CBSE. We will improve the syllabus by giving thrust on quality education in the curriculum. The concept of value education has been incorporated in the syllabus which includes knowledge about personal hygiene, importance of following traffic rules, civic sense and yoga,” he had told a press conference about a week ago.
The Tourism Department is also promoting Yoga while equating it with wellness tourism. “Wellness tourism in Goa is growing and Yoga is contributing immensely to this segment. Goa has amazing locales to perform yoga. Today everybody is health conscious and shifting to ancient alternatives for healing like yoga. We are seeing a growing trend of travelers opting for Yoga Holidays and there is no better place than Goa. I am optimistic that in the years to come Goa will be a leading destination for foreign and domestic tourists choosing Goa for wellness tourism and in particular for yoga” Tourism Minister Manohar Azgaonkar said.
The coastal belt like Arambol is already popular among the foreign nationals to perform yoga even as a number of coaching classes are conducted along the stretch.

Team TNV