BELAGAVI: The Belagavi City Corporation (BCC) has come up with a new proposal for maintenance of the tallest Tricolour flag post of the country which was inaugurated in March on the banks of Fort Lake here.The proposal will be tabled in the committee of Rs 100 crore CM's Special Development Fund headed by the district in-charge minister. The project to put up the 361-foot flag had been taken up under the same fund. The deputy commissioner is the secretary and city MLAs, BCC commissioner and mayor are members.Recently, Sarala Herekar, chairman of accounts standing committee of the BCC, expressed opposition to spending BCC money on flagpost maintenance and instructed officials about it. According to her, flag maintenance costs lakhs of rupees every month and BCC is not financially sound to handle it.However, a senior BCC official, on condition of anonymity, said Herekar spoke without taking information from officials. The officer said BCC hasn't spent a single rupee on maintenance in the past three months. This is the responsibility of the contractor, Bajaj Electricals Ltd, for one year. So far, five flags have been damaged and all have been replaced by the contractor.BCC has incorporated measures to cut upkeep after taking tips from Bajaj Electricals. According to the proposal, several cities, such as Hyderabad and Lucknow, have monumental flags and have decided to hoist medium-sized flags to prevent damage to the cloth during extreme weather conditions. Such a decision can be taken in Belagavi too, by reducing the flag size to 60ft x 40ft from the existing 120ft x 80ft. The panel will also decide on appointing a separate agency to monitor flag hoisting and maintenance.BCC sources said representatives of Bajaj Electricals Ltd will be present at the meeting and explain to committee members how maintenance cost can be reduced.

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