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Monday Musings: How many over-sized tricolours does Pune need?
The standing committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation recently approved installation of additional three high mast flags in the city, which will cost more than a crore rupees each. Given that two such flags already exist, how sound is this decision?
How many over-sized, gigantic national flags does a city need to wear on its sleeve to proclaim its patriotism? Is just one majestic tricolour in a central square with high footfalls not enough?
And what about the astronomical cost of more than one crore rupees of erecting and maintaining these high mast symbols of national pride?
One can understand that a city may want to flaunt the tallest and largest national flag that it possibly can, to inspire patriotism, awe and wonder among the people. But when this ceases to be a singular monument of its kind and there are at least half-a-dozen structures of its kind, constructed somewhat mindlessly, then there are questions to be answered.
This is exactly the ludicrous situation that Pune finds itself in, compelling the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to wonder whether a policy is required to restrict the number of high mast national flags in the city.
When a gigantic tricolour was put up on a 107-metre-high flag pole in the popular Bhakti Shakti Udyaan at Nigdi in 2018, it added to the charm of the public garden and became unique as the only flag that was this high in town. It cost the Pimpri Chinchwad Municpal Corporation (PCMC) more than Rs 1 crore and in September, the civic body approved an annual contract of Rs 46.85 lakh to maintain this flag for eight months in a year during October to May.
Displaying the flag during the four months of the monsoon was deemed unfeasible. Even during the non-monsoon months, the strong winds at that height cause the flag to tear frequently and it needs to be replaced “every four or five days,” according to a civic official.
In Pune, a 45-metre high flag exists at Shaniwarwada and another, at a height of some 75 metres at the scenic Katraj Lake. Alarm bells started ringing when the standing committee of the BJP-ruled civic body recently approved three more proposals of this kind.
On December 10, the standing committee approved three additional flag masts of 45 metres height at different locations, with initial cost of at least Rs 80 lakh each, in addition to the recurring annual cost of around Rs 40 lakh for replacing the giant flags frequently.
Civic activists have rightly criticised this decision as wasteful expenditure. The civic administration, too, felt likewise and Shrinivas Kandul, head of PMC’s electrical department urged municipal commissioner Saurabh Rao to introduce a policy to restrict the number of such giant flag poles in the city.
Civic officials say that each super-sized flag costs upwards of a lakh rupees, and more than three lakh rupees if the flag is made of “parachute material” to withstand the strong winds.
The public criticism seems to have convinced at least some corporators who now feel that politicians should restrain themselves and not get into the competitive spirit of having a high mast flag in their own wards.
Civic activists have tried to underscore that the height of flag posts should not serve as indicators of the size of one’s patriotism. So very incensed was activist Vijay Kumbhar over the latest approval for three more giant flags in Pune and the consequent “waste of tax payers’ money,” that he dubbed it “an anti-national activity.”
Kumbhar said spending the tax payers’ money on unnecessary things is nothing short of anti-national.
This needs to be given serious thought and better sense ought to prevail among our politicians.
