AMRITSAR: The 69th Independence Day celebration at Guru Nanak Auditorium in Amritsar witnessed a flutter as the tri-color flag was hoisted upside down on Saturday.
The flag was unfurled by cabinet minister Bikram Majithia who was the chief guest of the function in the presence of deputy commissioner Ravi Bhagat, police commissioner JS Aulakh and other administrative officials.
It was only after Majithia had delivered much part of his speech; the authorities realized the negligence and corrected the mistake.
Later talking to media Majithia first denied that the flag was unfurled upside down and shifted responsibility on district administration if there was a mistake. But later, Majithia took notice of the blunder which, by then, had caused much umbrage among people and ordered strict action against persons responsible for the goof up.
Within an hour of completion of the function, district administration convened a press conference to inform that two policemen Varinder Singh and Gurmukh Singh had been suspended while recommendation had been given to take action against superintendent of police (headquarters).
Ravi Bhagat informed that a magisterial inquiry had also been ordered to investigate whether there was any connivance. The inquiry report would be given in two days time, he added.
Aulakh informed that as previous years, police had conducted rehearsal of the function which was also done on Saturday morning but what went wrong during the function would be revealed after investigations.