india

Updated: Aug 09, 2019 23:43 IST

Union Minister of State for Home, G Kishan Reddy said on Friday that village heads of all Gram Panchayats of Jammu & Kashmir have been advised to hoist the national flag on the Independence Day, August 15.

The separate flag of Jammu and Kashmir became defunct after Parliament annulled Article 370 that allowed Jammu and Kashmir to have a separate constitution and a flag.

Earlier on Friday, few students in Government Degree College in Kathua were reported by news agency ANI to have hoisted the national flag at the gates of the institution.

Former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is likely to unfurl the tricolour on Independence Day in Leh in the newly-created union territory of Ladakh. Dhoni, an honorary lieutenant colonel in the Indian Army, is at present stationed in Khrew in the Pulwama district of Jammu & Kashmir, along with members of his Territorial Army battalion.

The abrogation or Article 370 means that all laws applicable to people of India shall be applicable to people of J&K. Earlier on Wednesday, former J&K deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh had removed the J&K flag from his vehicle.



Jammu and Kashmir became part of the Union of India through an Instrument of Accession (IOA) signed by its then ruler Maharaja Hari Singh on October 26, 1947. As per the IOA, the state gave Union of India the power to legislate on only three aspects: external affairs, communications and defence.

Article 370 was incorporated in the Indian Constitution on October 17, 1949, exempting the state of Jammu and Kashmir from Constitution of India and cementing the terms spelt out in the IOA. Specifically, it allowed J&K to have its own Constitution, a say on legislation covering all issues except the three areas mentioned above.

