By IANS
Vijayawada : Tiranga Run, to commemorate the national flag designer Pingali Venkaiah, began at his native village in Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district Sunday.
Hundreds of people are participating in the run, which began at Batlapenumarru village, about 55 km from here, this morning.
State minister M. Buddhaprasad and parliament member from Vijayawada Lagadapati Rajagopal flagged off the run after paying tribute to Venkaiah. They garlanded his statue and hoisted the tricolour.
The participants were expected to reach here Sunday evening, where the main function will take place at the municipal grounds. Governor N.D. Tiwari will formally launch the 10-km run.
More than 100,000 people are expected to take part in the run. Assembly speaker Suresh Reddy, legislative council chairman Chakrapani and several MPs are attending the programme.
Several cultural programmes, skydiving and aerobatics will be organized to mark the run. Popular singer and music composer Shankar Mahadevan will also perform on the occasion.
MP Rajagopal took the initiative of organizing this run in memory of Venkaiah.
Born on Aug 2, 1876, Venkaiah designed the national flag and presented the same to Mahatma Gandhi at All India Congress Committee session in Vijayawada held in 1921.
The flag was made of two colours, red and green. The flag was accepted with some changes like addition of white colour and ‘dharma chakhra’ (wheel).
Venkaiah died July 4, 1963, in penuary.