The
Hindu BusinessLine: National: Saturday, June 22, 2019.
International
Yoga Day is now akin to a national festival and the Centre and the States leave
no stone unturned to make it a success. The Centre has spent about Rs.140 crore
on Yoga Day in the last five years.
The
fifth International Yoga Day was organised on Friday and the main event in
Ranchi, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saw a turnout of over 30,000 people.
According
to official sources from the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and
Homeopathy (AYUSH), about Rs.40 crore was spent on this year’s International
Yoga Day. This is double the amount spent last year, which stood at Rs.20
crore.
A
reply to a RTI filed by BusinessLine revealed that the Centre had spent over Rs.73
crore to organise the event during 2015-2017.
The
RTI also revealed that apart from publicity, other major expense heads are
calorie-laden snacks and sweets, supply of drinking water, mementos,
stationery, setting up tents and other equipment, hiring transport and
providing lodging and boarding for guests.
A
case in point is expenditure incurred by the Morarji Desai National Institute
of Yoga in 2016. Over Rs.8 lakh was spent in three days, from June 20-22, under
the head of ‘Catering services for VIP’ including breakfast, mid-meal, lunch,
evening tea and dinner, for about 10,000 people.
A
senior AYUSH official said, “It is yet not possible to ascertain the exact
break-up of expenditure for 2019, as it is in the process of being calculated.
But budget for us has never been a problem.”
A
chunk of the AYUSH Ministry’s spending was on publicising the Yoga Day event
both on Doordarshan and private channels, through radio jingles, print
advertisements in major English and regional language newspapers as well as
putting up hoardings including at key locations in New Delhi.
“AYUSH
was allocated Rs.64 crore for the publicity component for International Yoga
Day last year, of which we have incurred the required expenditure,” said the
official.
In
2019-20, allocation for the Information, Education and Communication (IEC)
component in AYUSH is Rs.52.60 crore.
Another
Rs.16 crore has been allocated for ‘International Co-operation, to support
budgets of embassies that organise Yoga Day programmes.