Patna, Jan. 23: In a late evening development, the Bihar government amended the 1991 circular which talked about norms for hoisting the national flag on Republic Day and Independence Day in districts.
According to the amended circular, the in-charge minis-ters of districts concerned would now hoist the flag in the region.
In case one minister is in-charge of more than one district then he or she would have to choose one district and in the other district the Tricolour would be hoisted by the divisional commissioner concerned. Giving details, principal secretary of cabinet coordination department Afzal Amanullah said: “The 1991 circular of the state government has been amended. Now ministers who are in charge of districts would unfurl the Tricolour in the districts under their charge. This is as opposed to the previous circular which said that ministers who were legislators would hoist the national flag in the districts from where they have been elected.”
Though the principal secretary refused to share reasons for the said amendment, sources said that the amendment was introduced as adherence to the 1991 circular would have denied ten ministers the opportunity to hoist the national flag on the occasion of Republic Day.
The ministers who would have been denied the opprtunity are Nand Kishore Yadav, Shyam Rajak, P.K. Shahi, Narendra Singh, Bhim Singh and Giriraj Singh. Yadav and Rajak would have been denied the opportunity as both belong to Patna district and the governor hoists the national flag here at Gandhi Maidan.
Shahi would have been denied the opportunity as he is yet to become a member of any House of the state legislature.
As far as cases of Narendra Singh, Bhim Singh and Giriraj Singh are concerned they would have been denied the opportunity as none of them are the members of legislative council and not legislative assembly.
Half of the following ministers- Nitish Mishra, Hari Prasad Sah, Sunil Kumar Pintu, Shahid Ali Khan, Janardan Singh Sigriwal, Gautam Singh, Narendra Narayan Yadav and Renu Kumari- too would have been denied the opportunity of hoisting tri-colour on the occasion of Republic Day.
While Mishra and Sah come from Madhibani district, Pintu and Khan too belong to the same district. They are from Sitmarhi.
Similar is the case with Janardan Singh Sigriwal and Gautam Singh as both come from Saran district.
Renu Kumari and Narendra Narayan Yadav come from Madhepura district.
Prior to the 1991 circular the flag hoisting in districts used to be done by district magistrates and divisional commissioners.