NEW DELHI: Free yoga classes provided to more than 17,000 people by Delhi government will remain suspended from November 1. Sources said the general council of Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University (DPSRU), headed by lieutenant governor VK Saxena, is yet to ratify the proposal sent by the board of governors to continue the classes. Deputy CM Manish Sisodia Monday tweeted the yoga classes, run at 590 centres, will not be held from Tuesday. “The board of the university wants the Yogshala to be run for the common people of Delhi. The (Delhi) government has also provided the budget (to the university), but still the order has been issued to close ‘Dilli ki Yogshala’ by intimidating the officers. The 590 yoga classes held in Delhi’s parks will be suspended from tomorrow,” Sisodia tweeted. LG Secretariat sources said the office was yet to receive any file seeking permission for extension of the programme beyond October 31. “It is wrong to state the LG has not approved the extension of the programme due to which it is being discontinued,” said an official. However, sources in Delhi government said Sisodia had sent a letter to CM Arvind Kejriwal for continuation of the classes on October 26, which was forwarded to the LG the same day. The classes under ‘Dilli ki Yogshala’ scheme were started by Delhi government in December 2021. The government had established the Centre for Meditation and Yoga Sciences in collaboration with DPSRU, which enrolled about 650 students for diploma and certificate courses, who were trained to become yoga instructors. While the DPSRU’s board of governors had decided on September 30 that the classes will be discontinued from November 1, it took a U-turn on October 29. It “unanimously” decided to continue them as an outreach programme in “larger public interest”. Delhi government had earlier alleged officials were being pressured by BJP to stop the programme. Sisodia had last week served a notice to training and technical education secretary Alice Vaz to explain why the decision to discontinue classes was taken without discussing it with him. He had also met the LG in this regard.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/no-free-yoga-in-city-parks-from-today/articleshow/95215512.cms