Mortuary workers, street vendors to be Special Guests for 75th I-Day celebration

Defence secretary Ajay Kumar on Wednesday said that mortuary workers, street vendors, Anganwadi workers and Mudra Scheme loanees will be the special guests in the celebration of 75th Independence Day.
"This year we have invited mortuary workers, street vendors, Anganwadi workers and Mudra Scheme loanees as special guests for the 15th August Independence Day celebrations," Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar said.

Talking about the special initiative for the 75th Independence Day celebration, he also revealed that for the first time indigenous designed and developed ATAGS guns will be used for the ceremonial salute.

"We are going to use indigenously designed and developed gun for the ceremonial 21 gun salute. We have been using a British one-pound ceremonial gun for the 21-gun salute ever since the independence. Now, we have developed the ATAGS gun designed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and developed by the industry partners and it has been customised for blank firing shell and its sound attributes. This will also be used along with the usual British gun," Kumar added.

One ATAGS gun will be used for ceremonial gun salutes along with British guns and it will symbolise that India is now capable of making guns.

The defence secretary further touched upon the initiative under which the National Cadet Corps (NCC) from districts across the country dressed in their local attire will be seated in front of the Red Fort in the formation of the Indian map to showcase the cultural diversity of India.

In his address, he also mentioned that Cadets from 14 countries-- Mauritius, Argentina, Seychelles, UAE, Mozambique, Fiji, USA, UK, Indonesia, Maldives, Nigeria, Brazil, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan-- are invited to witness the Independence day celebration.