Preserving pride of the tricolour

Published: Monday, Aug 16, 2010, By Brinda Majithia | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA 

It is quiet ironical that every year, a day after August 15, plastic and paper replicas of the tricolour, which we salute on Independence Day, are seen carelessly thrown around. But, this year will be different. The Rotaract clubs of Andheri and Mithibai College have organised ‘Operation Tricolour’, which will involve college-going youngsters collecting all the flags that are carelessly strewn on the road.
“On August 16, we will meet around 6.30am in Mithibai College and then divide into groups. Each group will be allotted a locality in Andheri and Vile Parle. Intwo hours, all the groups will collect the flags find lying around,” said Jeet Tanna, organising chairperson, Rotract Club, Mithibai.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has allowed the students to set up booths, where the groups can deposit the flags they collect. The flags will be then handed over to the civic body, which will recycle them. “The BMC authorities have been very cooperative. They have allowed us to have booths outside schools, colleges and parks. They have always supported all our initiatives with active interest,” said Jeet.
Shaista Shaikh, another member of the Rotaract Club,Mithibai, said, “We just want people to know that they should be careful about how they treat the flag, and they must not just dump it on the road.
They should respect the flag as it upholds the prestige of India.”
According to Jeet, it’s really unfortunate that people just throw away the flags. “Peoples’ attitude doesn’t change. Even schoolchildren are particular and careful when it comes to the Indian tricolour,” said Jeet.
Seventy to eighty members of the Rotract clubs will be a part of this campaign.