PTI
NEW DELHI, March 20
Yoga classes will be held for central government employees and their dependents across the country from next month onwards. “The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is organising regular Yoga training sessions from April 1, 2015 for the benefits of central government employees and their dependents,” an official order issued on Friday said.
The sessions will be held all days except Sundays or gazetted holidays at Grih Kalyan Kendra, Samaj Sadan in association with Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga in New Delhi.
“No registration or training fees will be charged,” it said. There are about 31 lakh central government employees working across the country.
The central government has been emphasising on popularising use of traditional medicine and yoga among others.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last year in his speech, at the United Nations in the US, appealed to the international community to adopt an international Yoga day. Following which, the United National General Assembly had in December last declared June 21 as the International Yoga Day.
The DoPT is also organising a two-day workshop for senior bureaucrats to help them learn stress management techniques.
The workshop, scheduled to begin from March 28, is being organised for officers working in the DoPT and the Cabinet Secretariat here.
The DoPT deals with works related to personnel matters of central government employees and anti-corruption initiatives like Lokpal and others while Cabinet Secretariat provides secretarial assistance to cabinet and cabinet committees.
SC declines PIL seeking to make ‘Bhagwad Gita’ national scripture
IANS
New Delhi, March 20
The Supreme Court Friday declined to entertain a plea seeking direction to the central government to declare the “Bhagwad Gita” as a national scripture, saying that the Hindu sacred book varies for different people with different beliefs.
Telling the petitioner, advocate M.K.Balakrishnan, that the directions sought by him were beyond the domain of the court, a bench of Chief Justice H.L.Dattu, Justice M.Y.Eqbal and Justice Arun Mishra said: “One person may think that this is a sacred book for me, other may say that about another book.”
“Every citizen has a mind set about which is a sacred book. How can we give a declaration,” the court said, adding: “People have their own mind to decide what they want to study.”
Declining the PIL, the court reminded Balakrishnan the teaching from the scripture about “doing your work without caring for the results”.
As Balakrishnan recited some shlokas from the scripture, Chief Justice Dattu said that on Friday the court are hearing shlokas from the Gita, citing the couple recited by lawyer Lily Thomas telling the court that it was its obligation to ensure security for women and freedom of religion.
