BENGALURU: When the entire nation is celebrating ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ as part of India’s 75th Independence Day celebrations, here are some unsung heroes who have been dutifully hoisting the Tricolour on Vidhana Soudha everyday and are paid a meagre Rs 50 per day, besides their regular salary.
All they are asking for now is to increase the allowance to Rs 100. Recruited as Group ‘D’ employees, there are seven such workers who work in three shifts everyday to carry out their flag duty. They work along with home guards or police personnel.
The flag pole which is 30-feet high is on the fourth floor which is 150 feet high from the ground. This means that flags that we see from outside Vidhana Soudha are fluttering 180 feet above ground level. Employees on flag duty use lifts till the third floor and then take the staircase.
‘Flag is hoisted barefoot at Soudha’
“Hoisting the flag on Vidhana Soudha is not so simple. There are certain rules which need to be followed. They have to be hoisted at a particular time during sunrise and taken down at a prescribed time during sunset. It needs to be hoisted barefoot. Once it is removed, there is a certain way to fold it,” Antony Das, senior-most staffer on flag duty told The New Indian Express. He is doing this job for the last 26 years.
Like Antony, his colleagues too work in day and night shifts. “Rain or shine, there is no holiday for them. If sunrise is at 6.22 am, come what may, they have to hoist the flag at that time. These rules force people to reach the spot ten to 15 minutes earlier,” said sources from DPAR.
These employees are paid salary for their regular work, which includes opening and closing of doors of offices at Vidhana Soudha including the offices of the chief minister and the chief secretary. There is no fixed time as on many occasions, they end up closing doors late at night. DPAR sources said they are paid Rs 50 per day as flag duty. “It was Rs 15 per day in 2013 and Rs 25 per day in 2016 and since then the amount has not been raised.
Their demand of increasing it to Rs 100 per day has not been met so far” DPAR official sources said. The flag that they hoist on Vidhana Soudha is one of the biggest flags in Karnataka which is 8-feet high and 12-feet wide. It is so large that it used to be visible from K R Market area.
But over a period of time, new high-rise structures have come up which obstruct the view of the flag. These are khadi flags brought from Khadi Gramodyog unit in Hubballi. There are about ten to 15 flags kept ready at any given point of time.