The nine-member committee set up in June 2017 to study and submit a report to the government on designing a flag for Karnataka and providing it a statutory standing will be submit its final report by the month-end.
The Department of Law and Parliamentary Affairs is learnt to have given a favourable opinion for having a separate State flag, after looking into legal and constitutional issues.
The committee, headed by the Secretary of the Department of Kannada and Culture, which met here on Wednesday for the fourth time in the last two months, reached a consensus on having a separate State flag for Karnataka. A member, who was privy to the meeting, told The Hindu , “Discussion on technical, legal, constitutional, and emotional issues have concluded and the process of preparing the report to be submitted to the government has began.”
The next and final meeting will be held on January 22 and the final report submitted to the government by the month-end. On the design of the flag, another member said the State flag would be designed keeping in mind the “identity of Kannada land, language and culture”. The consensus is to recommend a design which is acceptable to all, without giving scope for any discontent, he said, hinting that the bi-colour flag that is currently used may be retained.
“Once the committee submits its report to the government, the same would be sent to the Union government for seeking constitutional validity,” said a senior official in the Department of Kannada and Culture. The committee members include the secretaries to the departments of Personnel and Administrative Services, Home, and Law and Parliamentary Affairs, the president of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat, the chairman of the Kannada Development Authority, the Vice-Chancellor of the Kannada University, Hampi, and the Director of the Department of Kannada and Culture.
