Cornered over showing disrespect to the tallest Tricolour unfurled by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on January 23 last, Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi Manoj Kumar, who happens to be the ex-officio chairman of the Pahari Mandir Vikas Samiti, on Wednesday roped in Army personnel to salvage the national flag at Pahari Hills.
Soldiers of the Indian Army will now attempt to bring down the Tricolour atop Pahari Hills, which has been flying at half-mast for the past four days, not as a sign of State mourning but due to a technical snag. The soldiers will try to cut the cable supporting the national flag to bring it down while hanging from a helicopter on Thursday morning.
According to JK Jha, technical expert from MECON, who addressed a Press briefing on Wednesday, the new flag that was raised to replace the torn one, got stuck while being hoisted when the rope dislodged from the pulley positioned at the top of the pole for moving it.
"We tried to bypass the trip system of motor powering the winch mechanism used to move the flag to generate more force so that the rope's position can be corrected but that resulted in failure of the coupling," explained Jha. Any extraordinary force on the winch system might worsen the problem, leaving two options open, either to put the rope back in place on the pulley or cut it from above the flag. If the cable is severed from beneath the flag, wind pressure will take it away making it unfeasible to get hold of it again, said Jha.