Delhi to spend ₹104 cr on installing 500 flags in city
In the 2021-22 budget, named the Deshbhakti budget by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, the government allocated ₹45 crore for the project.
The Delhi government will spend ₹104.37 crore on installation of 35-metre high national flags across 500 locations in the city, according to government documents.
In the 2021-22 budget, named the Deshbhakti budget by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, the government allocated ₹45 crore for the project. In the first tender of the project issued in September, the estimated spending was revised to ₹84 crore, according to the government documents that HT has seen.
“It was further stated that funds to the tune of ₹45 crore has been earmarked/approved during the current financial year. Additional budget provisions, if any required, will be made in RE (revised estimates) 2021-22 after locating matching savings in other capital heads,” said the minutes of a meeting that was held on September 23 and the documents shared by the government in public domain on Thursday.
It further said, “The department (public works) has selected 611 tentative locations such as schools, Delhi government offices, DTC (bus) depots, hospitals, courts, etc. Five flags were already installed and inaugurated on August 15, 2021. The final 495 locations will be done in consultation with local representatives and public.”
The five locations where the government unfurled national flags on August 15 are in assembly segments New Delhi, which is represented by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal; deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s assembly constituency Patparganj; health minister Satyendar Jain’s constituency Shakur Basti; Kalkaji, represented by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Atishi; and Dwarka represented by MLA Vinay Mishra.
The Delhi government presented its seventh annual budget on March 9 and termed it a “deshbhakti (patriotic) budget”, in view of the nation celebrating 75th Independence Day this year. It announced a range of programmes and measures to evoke patriotism in citizens, and Sisodia, who is also the finance minister of Delhi, proposed ₹45 crore for installing the national flag at 500 different locations across Delhi. The government also allocated ₹20 crore for events to be held on themes related to personalities such as Bhagat Singh and BR Ambedkar.