J&K state flag will be removed from all govt buildings

Jammu: As the Centre revoked provisions of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the official state flag will soon be permanently removed.

As per reports, the official state flag is still seen hoisted along with the tricolour at the Civil Secretariat building in Srinagar. The state flag, which is red in colour with three equidistant white vertical strips and a white plough, represents the bloodshed from the Kashmir agitation in July 13, 1931.

Jammu and Kashmir was permitted to fly its own flag along with the national flag under Article 370.

Parliament approved a resolution abrogating special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution and a bill for splitting the state into two union territories.    

Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Nirmal Singh became the first Constituent authority to remove the state flag from his official vehicle on Tuesday. “I have removed the state flag from my official vehicle yesterday soon after scrapping of Article 370,” Mr  Singh told PTI.

He said a notification is likely to be issued regarding the removal of the state flag. “I think that state flag may have been removed or will be removed as the state is now a Union Territory,” he said. Advocate Arun Kandroo says under Article 370 of the Constitution of India, Jammu and Kashmir had a separate Constitution and a separate flag.

On June 7, 1952, a resolution was passed by the Constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, declaring an official state flag. During the PDP-BJP rule in 2015, the state government, on March 12, 2015, had issued a circular asking constitutional authorities to hoist the state flag along with the tricolour on government buildings and vehicles.