PUDUCHERRY: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cancelled his visit to Puducherry to inaugurate the National Youth Festival on January 12 due to an increase in Covid cases in the Union Territory (UT) and Tamil Nadu. On Friday, a senior BJP leader and the Union Territory of Puducherry's Home Minister revealed the information.

The National Youth Festival, which was supposed to take place from January 12 to 16 to commemorate India's 75th anniversary of independence and Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary, will now take place solely in virtual mode for three days. Prime Minister Modi will now hold a virtual opening ceremony for the National Youth Festival on January 12, as planned.

All Chief Secretaries have been notified by Puducherry Chief Secretary Ashwini Kumar not to send delegations from their respective states and to take note of the change in schedule to virtual mode.

The five-day event was projected to attract 7,000 young people from all 50 states and the Union Territories. Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, who was in Puducherry on Wednesday, oversaw all of the event's preparations and assigned a team of officers from the Ministry, led by Under Secretary of the Department of Sports and Youth Affairs Pankaj Kumar Singh.

The Puducherry administration has breathed a sigh of relief now that the programme has been shifted to virtual mode.

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