The government has reached out to about three lakh people during the recent awareness drive to involve people’s participation in the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign to unfurl the national flag in households between August 13 and Independence Day on August 15.
The campaign, hosted as part of the 75th anniversary celebrations of Independence, was launched the other day in Puducherry by Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and Chief Minister N. Rangasamy.
Speaker R. Selvam, PWD Minister K. Lakshminarayanan, Health Secretary C. Udayakumar and Culture Secretary A. Nedunchezhian participated. Ministers, MLAs and MPs are also taking up the campaign, a press note said.
Meanwhile, the government said that following an amendment to the Flag Code of India, 2002 (which together with the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, govern the display, use and hoisting of the national flag), the national flag would be allowed to be flown at individual houses and buildings “through day and night”.
The amendment states, “Where the flag is displayed in open or displayed on the house of a member of the public, it may be flown day and night,” replacing the existing provision stipulating that when the flag is displayed in the open, “it should, as far as possible, be flown from sunrise to sunset, irrespective of weather conditions.”
According to the press note, following the launch of the campaign, the government organised 62 events at 1,080 places across the Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam regions. All major departments hosted programmes to reach out to an estimated 2.96 lakh people in urban, rural and coastal communities.
The mass awareness creation events included rallies, door-to- door distribution of pamphlets, dhol and ‘Poi Kal Kutharai’ (dummy horse) displays, drawing/painting, essay and elocution, singing of patriotic songs, flag salute at morning prayer assemblies and flag marches in schools. Besides, tree sapling plantation was carried out on school campuses with the help of NSS and NCC volunteers.
The Health Department organised awareness sessions at vaccination sites, while ASHA workers distributed pamphlets and posters in villages. Standees, banners and stickers were arranged at prominent public places and inter-intra State buses.
Armed forces veterans were invited to share their experience during peace-time and war-time situations. Industries also conducted various events under Corporate Social Responsibility.
Slogans to encourage public participation in ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ have been prepared in Tamil for Puducherry-Karaikal, Malayalam for Mahe and Telugu for Yanam. An estimated 2 lakh milk sachets of PONLAIT are propagating the messages every day, according to the press note.
