HUBLI: The country’s only authorised national flag producing centre, the Karnataka Khadi Gramodyoga Samyukta Sangha (KKGSS), Bengeri, is all set for a record sale of national flag this financial year as it has already sold flags worth Rs 50 lakh ahead of the 65th Independence Day celebrations.The Sangha started its National Flag Production Centre in 2004 and it is supplying Bureau of Indian Standards-certified flags. In 2010-11, the centre sold national flags worth Rs 80 lakh and this time, by the end of current financial year, it expects sale worth Rs 1.20 crore. In the last four months, it sold flags worth Rs 50 lakh.The centre has been increasing its capacity in producing the flags year by year and profit too shot up proportionately. It had earned Rs 15.12 lakh in 2005-06, Rs 40.77 in 2006-07, Rs 46 lakh in 2007-08, Rs 57.76 in 2008-09 and Rs 61.69 in 2009-10.The centre gets raw materials like hand-spun and hand-woven khadi clothes from Tulasigeri and Jalihal villages of Bagalkot district. After receiving the clothes, the centre tests the materials at 15 stages and then the flags will be released for sale as it has to meet the BIS standards. The centre has 45 workers involved in different works like dying, cutting, stitching, ironing, printing (where Ashoka Chakra will be printed on the flag) and packing.The centre has increased the price of flags this year as the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) revised the flag price by 20 per cent. Khadi Sangha secretary V T Huded told Express that as the demand for national flags is huge, the workers are working overtime, from 9 am to 8 pm and around 500 flags are being prepared everyday.“The plastic flags should be banned strictly and authorities should join their hands with the Sangha to create awareness among the people,” he added.
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