ULTIMATELY sanity has prevailed and the Punjab Government has taken the right step of banning kite-flying throughout the province. This followed a number of killings and injuries caused by coated string and metal wire during the last couple of weeks and increasing calls from different sections of the society to ban kite-flying.The Government of the Punjab deserves credit for taking this bold and timely step as there were daily reports of casualties due to foul-playing in the sport. Metal wires cut throats of many a boy and girl while a number of young people had their limbs broken during blind pursuit of kites. All this had sent a wave of shock and anger throughout the province. It is regrettable that kite manufacturers and flyers paid no heed to repeated warnings by the apex court and the Punjab Government urging them not to use metal or chemically/glass coated wires to avoid loss of precious lives.
In fact, kite-flying, over decades, assumed dangerous and objectionable dimensions and that is why became a subject of heated discussions. Earlier, it used to be a simple sport with people going to open places to enjoy it. However, with the passage of time, undesirable tendencies crept in and as a result this sport started causing irritation among different sections of the society. First of all, the way the kite-flying is done, is perceived to be an invasion of Indian culture. Things have deteriorated to such an extent that a Heera Mandi like culture was engulfing the whole of Lahore, which is shameful. All this was going on under full official patronage.
Every year on the occasion of Basant or its edited nomenclature ‘Jashan-e-Baharan’, not only bureaucrats, Government functionaries, politicians and even high ups used to spend a few days in Lahore on one pretext or the other but foreigners too swarmed the metropolis, which was a slur on the good name of Punjab. No doubt, kite-flying had become almost an industry and it generated business of billions of rupees for different stakeholders but the loss of lives, reputation, values and culture overweighed the economic benefits. The decision to ban kite-flying is, therefore, fully justified, needs to be implemented with full force and other provinces too should follow the suit.