Yoga Day: 150 Patiala students denied entry to Yoga Day venue in Chandigarh

Patiala : Around 150 students from Patiala, who had gone to Chandigarh for Yoga Day rehearsals, faced a harrowing time on Sunday morning as they were not allowed to enter the venue.The students, who departed from Patiala on Saturday night, spent the entire night and the morning in buses.The District Sports Officer had directed the coaches to take at least 15 players to Chandigarh from each discipline for yoga day rehearsals, following which around 200 players gathered at the Polo Ground at 7 pm on Saturday. Even though the PRTC buses that were supposed to ferry them reached on time, they were made to wait till 9 pm without any food. They were then taken to Fatehgarh Sahib gurdwara and served langar around 10.30 pm.They again boarded the buses but were made to wait for another 4 hours before starting the journey to Chandigarh.The students reached the venue around 4.30 am, but were not allowed entry, even when the rehearsals were held. The officials accompanying them kept calling their coordinators regarding their entry but only 50 students were issued entry cards and the remaining 150 kept on waiting outside the venue. The officials had to struggle to arrange breakfast for these students.The students complained that they could not even take a break since there was no arrangement for their stay. The buses returned to Patiala around 11 am on Sunday.The students were allowed to go home on Punjab Education Minister Daljeet Singh Cheema’s intervention. However, they have been asked to reassemble at 4 pm tomorrow to prepare for the June 21 International Yoga Day function in Chandigarh.