Republic Day gathering to be 70% less this year

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New Delhi, January 18

The number of people allowed to attend the Republic Day parade this year is likely to be curtailed to approximately 5,000-8,000 due to the Covid situation, with seats reserved for construction workers, frontline health workers and others, senior officials of the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

Only double vaccinated adults and children above the age of 15 who have taken at least one dose of Covid vaccine will be allowed to enter, they said.

The officials said the parade would start at 10.30 am instead of 10 am to provide better visibility.

They said the number of people that would be allowed to attend the Republic Day parade this year is to be curtailed by 70-80 per cent to approximately 5,000-8,000 due to the Covid wave.

Nearly 25,000 people were allowed to attend the last year’s parade, compared to around 1.25 lakh people in 2020, due to the pandemic.

The government has decided expand the Republic Day celebrations to make it “Republic week”. The birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (January 23) will be celebrated during the week.

21 tableaux selected

The Defence Ministry has said 12 states/UTs have been selected to display their tableaux. They are Arunachal, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, J&K, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In all, 21 tableaux would be shown at this year’s parade. PTI