G20 Summit in Amritsar: View-cutters with national flag colour scheme upset residents

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, March 14

City residents are upset over the use of fabric having colours similar to the national flag for concealing garbage, filth and unpleasant sites on the roadside in the city during the G20 Summit.

To present the city’s beautiful surroundings, development works worth crores have been undertaken in the last few months. About 50 delegates from 16 countries are likely to take part in the Punjab leg of G20 Summit scheduled to begin tomorrow.

Anil Vinayak, a resident of Race Course road, said, “What a shame! The action amounts to disrespect to the national flag. It is not being done by anybody else but the local administration and the Municipal Corporation. A long cloth bearing colours the same as national flag is being used to cover the areas full of garbage and filth alongside roads. The MC officials have committed a criminal offence as per rules and guidelines for hoisting the national flag.”

The long piece of fabric having orange colour on top, white in the middle and green at bottom was seen along the Circular Road and Ranjit Avenue. The national flag also has three colours in the same pattern, the only exception being the Ashoka Chakra, with a 24-spoke wheel, in navy blue at the centre.

Davinder Singh, a city resident, said a fabric of any colour could have been used to conceal a site which the administration did not want to show to the delegates, for security reasons or otherwise. However, the use of the colour scheme may send a wrong message to the foreign delegates.

Harpreet Singh Sudan, Deputy Commissioner, however said this was in no way a depiction of the national flag. It was just a view-cutter inspired by the same colour scheme.