The State-level inauguration of the Cooperative Onam-Bakrid fair will be held at the Town Hall here on Sunday.
Minister for Cooperation and Tourism A.C. Moideen will inaugurate the fair being organised in the district under the aegis of the Calicut Town Cooperative Bank at 11.30 a.m. Minister for Excise and Labour T.P. Ramakrishnan will be the chief guest on the occasion while M.K. Raghavan, MP, will make the first sale.
Consumerfed Chairman M. Mehboob has said that the products at the fair will be sold at a price 20 to 70 per cent lower than the market rate to cater to the common man. There will be 40 different products. Ration cards have been made mandatory to purchase the products at the fair so that they go to the rightful people. A person will be provided only what is due him as per his ration card. Special squads have been deployed to ensure the effectiveness of the fair, he said.
The 208 Triveni stores in the State will be part of the Onam fair. Mobile Triveni stores have been set up to take the services to remote parts of districts. The fair is expected regulate the prices of essential commodities during the festival season, he said.
Under the aegis of the local cooperative societies, 1,627 village fairs will be held across the State. There will also be special fairs at the Endosulfan-affected regions in Kasaragod district as well as the coastal belt and tribal belt.
Mr. Mehboob said the Consumerfed could make the products available at a considerable lower price due to the transparent e-tender process used to purchase them. This also helped the federation to bring down its subsidy loss by around Rs.12 crore. In the previous years, the subsidy loss used to be Rs.25 crore to Rs.30 crores.
The Consumerfed fairs are expected to put a rein on the artificial scarcity of food products during the festival season, he added.
