Date:14/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/14/stories/2008081455770600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Patriotic fervour on display

Staff Reporter

Over 1,000 students carry the ‘biggest national flag’

Photo: T. VIJAYAKUMAR

Marathon effort: Schoolchildren with the national flag in Chilakaluripet on Wednesday. —

CHILAKALURIPET: Over 1,000 students carried what they called the biggest national flag ever made on the premises of Sadineni Chowdariah High School premises on Wednesday during a trial run of the event to be held on Friday afternoon, commemorating the 61st Independence Day celebrations.

Sk. Abdul Rasheed, a tailor who made the flag measuring 141 feet in length and 94 feet in width and weighing 102 kg, said the event would be a memorable one in the history of the town. The event would have its fair share of nostalgia with octogenarian Ghantasala Seethamahalakshmi, daughter of Pingali Venkaiah, great freedom fighter who designed the national flag in 1921 at the Congress Working Ccommittee in Vijayawada, taking part in the event. She is now living at Macherla. Organisers have been making arrangements for the formal unveiling of the flag by a differently-abled child.

Mr. Rasheed said the rally would start from Chowtra Centre at 2 p.m. and wound its way through the main thoroughfares.