Pune, (IANS) It’s get set go, with just 365 days left for the 3rd Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) to be held in the city next year. To create awareness about the games, a gala evening has been planned on Thursday that will see the “Chak De India” girls participating along with playback singer Sukhwinder Singh.
The games will be held here from Oct 12 to 18, 2008.
“On the 11th of October it will be exactly 365 days to go. A function has been arranged to create awareness among the youth about the games. The Commonwealth Youth Games are first in the series of steps taken for the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi. It is very important that these games are organised well and in accordance with international standards,” Amrit Mathur, additional director general of Commonwealth Games, said at a press conference here Tuesday.
“On the 11th evening we will release the theme song, ‘Chalo Jigrr (the mascot for the games) ke sath’, written by Javed Akhtar and sung by the versatile singer Shankar Mahadevan. The evening will be compared by Javed Jaffery and former Miss India Amrita Thapar,” said Purnima Pendse, director cultural affairs CYG.
The “Chak De India” team minus Shah Rukh Khan will be there while Sukhwinder Singh, who has sung the “Chak De” song, will entertain the audience.
The organising committee has also invited 75 resident international students from various colleges in Pune to march with the flags of various countries participating in the games. Of the 75 international students, 30 are from the commonwealth countries.
While the chief guest is Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Deshmukh, other important invitees are President Commonwealth Games Federation Michael Fennell, Mayor of Pune Rajlaxmi Bhosale and Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi. The event is being held at the College of Engineering Grounds.
It will be kick-started by a huge two-wheeler rally of approximately 5,000 youth of the city. The rally would start from 10 different spots in the city and converge at the venue grounds just before the event.
Passes and tickets of the event are being distributed at different parts of the city by conducting contests on the website of the games (www.cygpune2008.com) and Radio Mirchi.
“Through this event and various other campaigns planned over the days to come, we want each and every child in Pune to sing the Jigrr song and have full information of the games, so that we are fully prepared to welcome guests from various commonwealth countries,” said Pendse.
Mathur said that the infrastructure development and work on the Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, where the games would be held, is on schedule.