VASCO
In a major goof up, the Indian flag was hoisted upside down outside the deputy collector's office in the municipal council building at Vasco on Saturday morning and remained in that state throughout the day, until authorities rectified the mistake only in the evening.
The office of Dy Collector was closed for the weekend and images of the flag hoisted upside down were quickly circulated online social media, while people in the port town condemned the careless attitude of those hoisting the flag in the morning.
Some alert citizens then informed Dy Collector Mahadev Arondekar in the afternoon, who regretted the incident and directed the Vasco police to immediately rectify the goof up to prevent further embarrassment, since the duty of hoisting the flag was under the purview of Vasco police.
The police arrived on the site at about 3.30 pm and got the flag down and re-hoisted the flag in the correct position.
Condemning the incident, residents in the port town have demanded an inquiry in the matter.
"I wonder how a policeman could not know the position of our national flag. This incident has put us to shame and the upside down national flag is an insult. This also amounts to an offence and an enquiry has to be conducted," said a local, Milind Kakodkar.
Another local, Chandrashekar Vasta, said that he had seen the flag hoisted upside down and had tried to contact the police.
"By the time I was trying to call, the police were there at the site and got the situation rectified. Such incidents should not happen and there should be an enquiry on how this happened," said Vasta.
A naval officer off duty who was present at the site expressed shock over the goof up, but he also regretted that the incident became a subject of ridicule on social media.
"Our national flag should be held in high esteem and definitely not something to be goofed up or made jokes and forwarded on social media websites," said the naval officer on condition of anonymity.
