It came as a pleasant surprise for many on Sunday, a day before the Independence Day, when none of the flag sellers in Ranchi made available a plastic made Tricolour as demanded. Commoners abiding by any official directive so seriously is indeed a heartwarming sight!
The Union Home Ministry had on August 13 sent advisories to all the State and UTs against the uses of plastic made national flag on important occasions such as the Independence Day since the material is non-biodegradable and thus often inflicts disrespect, no matter unknowingly.
“We have stopped selling plastic made flags which was very common earlier. Police officials have told us to stop selling such flags. This time we are also not getting the plastic made tiranga from the suppliers,” said Ravindra Kumar, a shopkeeper at Firayalal on Sunday.
Similar scene was across the Main Road and Upper Bazar when most of the sellers dealing with flag business expressed non-availability of plastic-made Tricolours, which was found in abundance on earlier occasions.
It is when the Departments dealing with such advisories coming from the Center played ignorance about the recent one from the Ministry of Home Affairs. “It would have come to the Cabinet Coordination,” says Additional Chief Secretary with Home Department NN Pandey. In his replay Principal Secretary in Cabinet Coordination SS Meena refused having any such information. Most surprisingly, the Chief Secretary Office also was not in a position to confirm whether any such advisory had been received, leave alone forwarding it for further action.
Nevertheless Ranchi DC Manoj Kumar sounded convincing. “Such plastic made flags are indeed problematic. As far as any direction in this regard is concerned, it is not with us so far. On our part we can only appeal people against using the plastic made flags. I would direct officials to look for such flags,” said the DC.
The Home Ministry issuing advisory had said, “…National Flags made of plastic are also being used in place of paper Flags. Since plastic flags are not biodegradable like paper flags, these do not get decomposed for a long time and ensuring appropriate disposal of National Flags made of plastic commensurate with dignity of the flag, is a practical problem…..The Advisory states that on important national, cultural and sports events, Flags made of paper only are used by public in terms of the provisions of the ‘Flag Code of India, 2002’….”