Delhi govt to spend over ₹100 crore on installation of 500 national flags

“We have allocated ₹45 crore for 500 flag masts across Delhi. They will be similar to the one we have at Central Park in Connaught Place. So even if someone covers a distance of two kms from his home, he will get to see the tricolour in all its glory and feel patriotic,” Delhi Deputy Chief Minister had said during the budget presentation.

However, in the first tender of the project issued in September, the spendings were revised to ₹84 crore, the daily cited Delhi government’s document.

The government has selected 611 tentative locations for the installation of the national flags, including schools, bus depots, hospitals, courts, etc. On India’s Independence Day, the Delhi government installed five national flags, and the final 495 locations would be done in consultation with the local representatives and the public.

Currently, the five places where the Delhi government installed the national flag on August 15 are– assembly segments, which is represented by CM Arvind Kejriwal, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s assembly constituency Patparganj; health minister Satyendar Jain’s constituency Shakur Basti; represented by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Atishi, and Dwarka represented by MLA Vinay Mishra.

The AAP government in Delhi presented its seventh annual budget on March 9. It presented a ₹69,000-crore budget themed on “patriotism” for the financial year 2021-22 as India celebrated the 75th Independence day this year. The Kejriwal-led AAP government announced a range of programmes and measures to evoke patriotism in citizens.

The city government has proposed to allocate ₹45 crore to install high masts to hoist the national flag at 500 places in the national capital.

Besides, the AAP government also incorporated a “deshbhakti period” in the city’s schools, adding that ₹10 crore each have been proposed for programmes on the lives of Bhagat Singh and B R Ambedkar during the 75-week “deshbhakti” celebrations.