DEHRADUN: Over Rs 36 crore was spent on this year’s International Yoga Day celebrations on June 21, including Rs 24 crore for publicity alone. This was disclosed by Union minister of state for AYUSH Shripad Naik while responding to a question in Parliament on July 20 regarding expenses incurred on the event each year since 2015.This year, the main Yoga Day event attended by PM Modi was held at the campus of the Forest Research Institute ( FRI ) in Dehradun. The minister said that the expenditure for the event was the highest this year. While the Uttarakhand government was given Rs 3.10 crore for organising mass yoga demonstration in Dehradun and Rs 3.40 crore for hiring an event management agency, a whopping Rs 24 crore was spent in the publicity for the mega event among other expenses, the minister added.As per the state government’s claims, the event was attended by over 50,000 people and had involved what officials had alleged was “a massive co-ordination exercise by the police, civic agencies and district administration.”The query regarding the expenses incurred on the event was raised by Rabindra Kumar Jena, MP of Balasore constituency in Odisha who also wanted to know from the AYUSH ministry, which is the nodal agency for organising the celebrations, the breakup of the expenditure.Replying to the query, Shripad Naik told the House that Rs 16,39 crore was spent on the event in 2015, Rs 18.03 crore in 2016, Rs 26,42 crore in 2017 and Rs 36.80 crore in 2018.The annexure to the reply contained a breakup of expenses incurred in this year’s event. The expenses on print, outdoor and electronic publicity amounted to Rs 24.6 crore this year while the hiring of the private event management company for the mass yoga demonstration in Dehradun cost Rs 3.40 crore. Procurement of T-shirts for the event was done at Rs 1.21 crore while publishing of coffee table book cost Rs 39 lakh, the ministry said in its reply. The ‘Yoga awards’ which were given to practitioners cost Rs 50 lakh while miscellaneous expenses were shown as Rs 69.25 lakh. Since Uttarakhand was the host state for the main event, the central government had also paid the state Rs 3.40 crore as ‘financial assistance.’Meanwhile, when state government officials were queried about the breakup of expenditure incurred by them, no response was forthcoming.

Stay updated with all the Dehradun Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.