1,800 events lined up to celebrate Independence Day | Economic Times

The Centre is set to roll out Independence Day programmes across the country under its ‘Jan Utsav, Jan Ke Dwara’ campaign, and has asked the states to localise them, celebrate them at the panchayat and district levels, and use them to showcase stories of local heroes.India will celebrate its 75th Independence Day on August 15. To mark the occasion, the culture and I&B ministries, national broadcaster Prasar Bharati and the state governments are said to be ready to roll out over 1,800 programmes and campaigns starting on August 13.Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated ‘Azadi ka Amrut mahotsav’ in March from the Sabarmati ashram in Ahmedabad. The celebrations will end on August 15, 2022. The culture ministry is now working on a calendar of events for the next one year.According to data from the culture ministry, 2,947 events have been organised till now to commemorate 75 years of India's freedom of which 2,128 have been hosted by the central ministries and 819 by the states. Most of the events were a mix of online and physical events.Top officials last week approved an events list put together by the ministries--and scheduled to be rolled out soon--under the agenda of India's freedom struggle, ideas and achievements at 75, apart from actions and resolve at 75.National broadcaster Prasar Bharati is expected to play a prominent role in this.Apart from insisting on localisation of the celebrations, the government is also keen on highlighting the contributions of local heroes, revolutionaries and social workers. All India Radio’s news services division has shortlisted 150 names of eminent social activists, revolutionaries and grassroots level workers who have disappeared from the pages of many history books.It has also asked all its 46 regional news units to step up broadcast activities for the occasion.Under a news programme called ‘Surkhiyon Mein’, the news broadcaster will talk about 75 welfare programmes of the government every Saturday and highlight how people have benefitted from them.An Amrit Mahotsav desk of four top officials has also been created in the news service division to coordinate activities between all ministries.