Basant or no Basant?: ‘All stakeholders must be represented’
The Kite Flying Association should be represented in the city government committee that is to submit recommendations on the possibility of observing Basant in the city.
The demand was made by All Pakistan Paper Merchants Association (APPMA) vice president Khawaja Naeem Saeed on Thursday.
Saeed urged Khwaja Salman Rafiq, adviser to the chief minister on health, to ensure that at least one member of the Kite Flying Association is on the ‘Observing Kite-Flying Day Committee’ set up by the Dilkash Lahore Committee. Rafiq heads the sub-committee. According to an earlier notification, the sub-committee includes representatives of the Lahore Kite-Flying Association.
Saeed said that unless “all stakeholders are represented” the committee meetings would be a waste of time. He stressed the need for a strategy that would address the apprehensions of the public and government regarding possible loss of lives and use of unsafe kite-strings during Basant and those of the people associated with the kite-flying industry. He demanded that the government take action against the profiteers who had “brought a bad name to kite-flying” and “continue to pass themselves off as members of the kite-flying association”.
Saeed said that he had made a recommendation to the chief minister that the government should build a ‘kite city’ or a ‘kite flying zone’ in the suburbs. This way, he said, the reservations of all stakeholders can be addressed.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 21st, 2012.
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Well said by Mr. Saeed (APPMA)..this is the problem with our Government, those people make the decisions those who are not related to the sports and games like in the Basant Festival, committee comprising of Police Chief, Mufti Shahab, Political persons, and only 1 person from Kite flying....so its a game of 7 members against 1....! whereas it should be 4 on 4 equal ratio....!
Basant is old Tradition in Lahore and we should carry on this tradition but with the proper rules & regulations..and those people should be arrested those who market illegal threads, chemicals..once those people are arrested and are punished then in future no other person would bring such threads....to make an example please arrest K.B thread owners as his thread are still coming in the market and illegally supplied.
For for safety and security of the general public kite flyers would also join in hands to get rid of the illegal materials for that awareness and campaigns should be done in print media and social media.