Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): Thanks to the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign, the wholesale sellers of the National Flag in the city are flooded with orders - so much so that most of them are finding it difficult to meet the demand.
“I have turned back 70% of my customers,” Ajay Agarwal, owner of Sheela Group told the Free Press, amid incessant calls from customers.
Agarwal said that he has already supplied 40-50 lakh flags of various sizes to resellers across the country. In comparison, last Independence Day, he could sell only around 30,000 - 40,000 flags.
According to him, cloth printed with the National Tricolour is produced in mills in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Surat. Bolts of these clothes are transported to Bhopal and cut and stitched locally.
While earlier, only hand-spun and hand-woven woollen, silk or cotton Khadi could be used for making national flags, this year, the Central Government has amended the Flag Code of India, allowing the use of polyester (roto) fabric for making the Tricolour. This change has made the flags affordable.
Ashok Patil, manager, Jhalak Enterprises, said that they are not taking orders as they don’t have stocks. “The demand is so high that if we place orders for 5,000 pieces we can’t hope to get more than 1,000,” he said.
According to Agarwal, he has received orders for supply of around 10 crore flags from all over the country.. “So far, we have been able to supply 40-50 lakh flags,” he said. He had started accepting orders from July 7.
Agarwal, who hails from Lucknow but has been dealing in national flags for the past 20 years in Bhopal, said that they are also receiving orders online. “We are using railways, trucks and courier services to fulfil the orders,” he said.
The prices of the national flags have also gone up. “This year, our purchase price is about 10% higher than our sale price last year,” he said.
Hari Prakash Mishra of Agarwal Bandhu said that they have no stocks. “We have made advance payments to the mill yet they are not fulfilling our orders,” he said.
