Bhubaneswar: The Income Tax (I-T) department Friday organised a mega cyclothon in an attempt to spread awareness about taxation and to commemorate 75 years of Indian Independence.
A large number of cyclists, including members of the I-T department, converged at the office campus here Friday morning and pedalled to the offices of the department in Puri via Cuttack.
The event was flagged off by former Indian hockey player and former Rajya Sabha MP Dilip Tirkey along with other senior officials. The department said that around 250 persons attended the cycle rally, garnering support from various organisations including the Revenue department.
Chief Income Tax Commissioner Manoranjan Panigrahi and Cuttack Collector Bhabani Shankar Chayani welcomed the rally in Cuttack. The cyclists then headed towards Puri by the National Highway and reached there at noon.
Tirkey, during his inaugural speech at the starting point, encouraged the cyclists to take part in the event. He also took the opportunity to congratulate the Indian Hockey teams for their good performance in Tokyo Olympics.
I-T department said that the event was meant to create awareness on taxation and to celebrate the honest taxpayers. “Cyclothon was one of the events planned as part of the celebrations of 75th year of India’s Independence. We have other events too in the coming days. Those include marathon, plantation drive and some other sports programmes. We could not arrange these earlier due to Covid protocol,” an official from the department said.
“The purpose of the cylothon is to honour the honest taxpayers. We also want to create awareness on inculcating the habit of cycling in a bid to lessen pollution,” he added.
During the event, cyclists had converged at the event with different types of cycles meant to cover long distances. The participants were seen flaunting tricycles, MTB cycles, hybrid cycles and even the Mo Cycles.