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Thiruvananthapuram: The Keralites' staple food, rice, is a lot costlier this year and the price of vegetables, provisions and other consumables are hardly any easier on the purse, but with Onam having come around again, there is little dent to celebrations in the state.
Ahead of the main Onam day today, there was the traditional last-minute buying frenzy witnessed across the state yesterday, with Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and all other major towns clogged with Onam shoppers.
Crowded markets
This is the first time that Keralites would be buying rice at an average price of more than Rs20 (Dh1.6) per kg for the better varieties, but that hardly seemed to be a deterrent as people crowded markets across the state to purchase ingredients for the lavish Onam feast.
The state tourism department is also doing its bit to make the Onam season extra colourful, with a number of cultural programmes scheduled to run through the season. The opening of the Onam-week cultural programmes were attended by chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan and tourism minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan at the state capital on Wednesday.
Keeping to the Onam spirit of being positive, Achuthanandan claimed that the government was keen to provide relief to all sections of society irrespective of the financial stress it was facing.
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