Flags are flavour of I-day season Security upped, traffic restricted
NEWDELHI: It is around 1.30pm on Tuesday and the ITO intersection in east Delhi is as usual busy with traffic. The lights turn and 12-year-old Sultan notices the cars stopped at the traffic signal. He rushes towards the stopped cars with around 10 national flags held close to his chest.
Sultan then goes on to use all the tricks of persuasion in his bag — clinging on to windows, falling at the customer’s feet and even forcing the flags at them. He has 90 seconds as per the signal timer and just a day left for Independence Day after which there will be no buyers for the flags. He sells one flag for Rs 100.
“This is a seasonal product. After August 15, these flags will not have any takers. In fact, by tomorrow (Wednesday) evening people will start losing interest,” said Sultan, while wiping his forehead with the sleeve of his tattered shirt.
From around a week before Independence Day, traffic signals across the city start bustling with hawkers who ditch their regular merchandise for selling tri-col- n ours. The vendors said that selling flags is not an easy feat.
The vendors have to pre-book these flags from suppliers at Sadar Bazar or Gandhi Nagar and usually have a week to sell them. If the flags are not sold, then they have to store it for next year.
Masoom Traders, a supplier of Indian flags in Sadar Bazar, ordered 132 flags this year. Srikant Tiwari, the owner of the shop, said that there was “limited demand”.
“It is not like ordering a few extra diyas or masks. No other time of the year would you see people wanting to buy their national flag. Unless there is an unpredicted political rally, these remain unsold,” Tiwari said.
He explains that the surge in demand for cloth flags—mostly cotton-satin and khadi—started after regular citizens were allowed to hoist and wave large- sized flags after industrialist and former MP Naveen Jindal filed a court case for the right of people to hoist their national flags. Before this, cloth flags were only a privilege of government offices, while the others were allowed to wave plastic flags.
“The market changed. People preferred the cloth flags over the plastic ones,” Tiwari said.
Many vendors said that holding the flag up throughout was more of a necessity than following a protocol or showing patriotism. As per the Flag Code of India, the national flag should not intentionally touch the ground or floor but rolls of the tricolour was seen spread over plastic sheets on the footpaths along Vikas Marg.
Forty three-year-old Babli, who was arranging her flags in order near the Janpath intersection said that it is the ‘middle and the lower middle class’ who buy the flags. The “sahabs” in big cars rarely roll down their windows to buy one.
“If you are selling flowers or mobile chargers we target the bigger cars. During Independence and Republic days, however, the strategy is different,” she said. NEWDELHI: On the eve of the country’s 72nd Independence Day, the Delhi Police have stepped up security at the borders. Checkpoints have been set up at various intersections and ‘suspicious looking’ vehicles are being stopped and owners frisked.
The Delhi Traffic Police on Tuesday said the movement at Delhi’s borders have been restricted owing to security reasons. An annual exercise, these special checks are being conducted to avoid any untoward incident.
The borders were sealed and the police started diverting heavy vehicles from 11pm on Sunday. These vehicles are to take alternative routes, bypassing Delhi, to reach their destinations. Most vehicles were being re-routed and directed to turn back from below the Rajokri flyover or the Shankar Chowk flyover.
“Security is our priority. Traffic restrictions will be stricter on Tuesday and Wednesday,” a sen- ior traffic officer said.
On the city roads, too, security checks have been put in place. Arterial roads and popular markets have police pickets for the last one week. The police said since Sunday evening, 34 cars with tinted windows have been prosecuted. These films have been removed and drivers fined.
“The SC has banned the use of tinted films on windscreens and side windows of vehicles. Such tinted windows are a major security concern,” the officer said.
Traffic restrictions along arterial roads in central and Old Delhi are also in place. On Wednesday, from 5am to 9am, the following stretches will remain closed to general traffic — Netaji Subhash Marg from Delhi Gate to Chatta Rail, Lothian Road from GPO Delhi to Chatta Rail, SP Mukherjee Marg from HC Sen Marg to Yamuna Bazar Chowk, Chandni Chowk Road from Fountain Chowk to Red Fort, Nishad Raj Marg from Ring Road to Netaji Subhash Marg, and Esplanade Road and its Link Road to Netaji Subhash Marg .