About ninety-one students in their school uniforms, marching in rows carrying a 91-foot long Indian National Flag paid tributes to Pingali Venkayya, who designed our National Flag.
Holding the long flag was a matter of pride for the school students who walked on the city streets.
The march, flagged off by Vijayawada West MLA Vellampalli Srinivas, began at the house in Bheemanavaripet in One Town, where Pingali Venkayya had breathed his last.
The event was organised by members of the Sri Pingali Swachanda Seva Samstha, a voluntary organisation floated by the freedom fighters' admirers, to mark the completion of 91 years of the Indian flag design.
During the national conference of the Indian National Congress at Kakinada, Venkayya had suggested that India should have a flag of its own. Gandhiji liked the idea and said it would be good if he could come up with a design.
Venkayya presented the tricolour with a charkha in the middle at the national conference held in Vijayawada in 1921. Gandhiji liked the flag, and the design was later adopted as the National Flag of India.
Sense of dignity
“Pingali Venkayya took just three hours to design the flag which went on to become the national pride. Today, the fluttering tricolour gives us a sense of dignity. We take immense pride in the fact that the designer of the Indian flag lived in this city,” said Angarala Suresh, founder president of the organisation.
Felicitated
The procession culminated in a meeting at Pingali Venkayya Bhavan, a structure raised by the organisation to commemorate the designer of the flag. Freedom fighter Vamana Rao was felicitated on the occasion.
State president of BC Hakkula Sadhana Samithi S. Bhaskar Yadav, director of Durga Cooperative Bank G. Sankar Yadad, corporator T. Das, and principal of Gowtham Public School at Chittinagar N. Surya Rao participated in the march.
Later, fruits and sweets were distributed to the schoolchildren.
