Tricolour demand exceeds supply in city

Guwahati: Aswini Kumar Saikia is a busy man these days. With Independence Day approaching, the manager of Assam Khadi and Gramodyog Board’s retail outlet in Panbazar has already sold around 1 lakh flags.
“Sales have increased over the years. Now, we get more orders from the other northeastern states. This is the busiest time for us,” Saikia told TOI. He added that the retail outlet sells 4 lakh locally-made flags annually.It also stocks up on flags imported from Mumbai.
“The flags from Mumbai are ISI-marked and cost much higher than the locally-made flags,” Saikia, whose organization has been selling flags since the 1950s, said. If locally-made flags cost Rs 400 apiece, the ISI product from Mumbai costs Rs 1,750 each. Saikia deals in six varieties of flags.
“Personnel from the Army, paramilitary forces and high court prefer the Mumbai-made product. Others buy locally-made flags. We sell around 1.5 lakh Mumbai-made flags per year,” he said.
With demand exceeding supply, the lack of manpower is posing a huge challenge for Saikia and others like him. “Demand has gone up and the lack of manpower is really hurting us. Our salesmen are having a tough time turning away customers,” he said, adding that with the district administration’s ban on plastic flags, the demand for cloth flags might go up.
“We used to buy plastic flags earlier. This time, we have bought only cloth-made flags,” said Niloy, a customer.