NEW DELHI: To mark the occasion of the 75th Independence Day, an indigenous artillery gun will be giving the ceremonial 21 Gun Salute along with the British ceremonial guns.
Also, children from 14 countries will be witnessing the flag hoisting ceremony at Red Fort here. All this will take place in addition to the usual programmes.
Dr Ajay Kumar, Defence Secretary on Wednesday said, “For the first time we will be using the 25 pounder indigenously designed and developed ATAG Gun which has been customized to fire blank shells and sound attributes.” Till now we have been using the one Pounder British howitzer artillery guns, Dr Kumar told reporters.
In total, seven ceremonial guns are used to fire 21 shells while the national anthem is sung. There will be one Advanced Towed Artillery Gun (ATAG) along with the British guns.
In addition, cadets from 14 countries and the cadets of National Cadet Corps (NCC) will witness the ceremony along with specially invited people of the “overlooked segments of society".
“In a first, 127 special Youth Exchange Programme (NCC) representatives from Mauritius, Argentina, Seychelles, UAE, Mozambique, Fiji, the US, UK, Indonesia, Maldives, Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, Brazil and Uzbekistan will be present along with the NCC Cadets.” added Dr Kumar. These cadets were selected through a competition which was run by the Indian embassies in those countries and will be in India for a week from 9 to 17 August.
These Cadets will be in addition to those from 10 countries -- Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Kyrgyz Republic, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Vietnam — with whom NCC already has an ongoing Youth Exchange Programme.
The NCC cadets from over 775 districts of the country will also be present in their local attires. “The seatings of the cadets will be arranged in such a way that they sit in their districts in the map of India.”
Continuing with its efforts to give opportunities to overlooked segments of society, the government this year has invited mortuary workers, street vendors, andganwadi workers and MUDRA scheme loonies, the Defence Secretary said.
MUDRA (Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd) is a scheme to assist the micro enterprise sector.