In a bid to draw the attention of people, stalls set up by various government departments at the annual Chithirai Exhibition at the Tamukkam Grounds have adopted innovative displays and models to explain the schemes implemented by the government or the works carried out in the district.
While the stall set up by the Horticulture Department has a colourful display of fruits and vegetables as well as pathways lined with grass and other potted plants, the Agriculture Department has displays of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method where it has on show standing paddy crop in a small area.
“There are many advances in the field such as drip irrigation, sprinklers as well as the SRI method of which the department wants to spread awareness and hence, we have small exhibits depicting them. We are expecting a lot of crowd from the rural areas and hope this will be useful for them,” said Kumari Lakshmi, an Assistant Agriculture Officer.
Similarly, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR &CE) department has arranged ‘golu’ dolls to explain the various schemes, including the camp for temple elephants at Mudhumalai, performing weddings free of cost and pension for performing artistes.
In the stall set up by the Education Department, activities such as puzzles and a few interactive games were put up to garner the attention of children visiting the fair.
“The crowd is slowly picking up and we expect more people to visit the expo during the weekends. While the stalls selling various household utilities and food items in front are the main attraction for the people who visit the exhibition, we hope that they will be interested in these stalls as well,” said an official manning a stall.
The 45-day exhibition, which was inaugurated on April 12 attracts maximum crowd on the days of the celestial wedding of Goddess Meenakshi and Lord Sundareswarar and the entry of Lord Kallazhagar into the Vaigai, which see a large influx of devotees into the city from the surrounding villages and other districts.
