The State government will distribute Onam kits to 1,59,541 Scheduled Tribe families and Onakkodi to 56,426 senior citizens, both men and women above 60 years of age, a press release from the office of A.K. Balan, Minister for Welfare of SC/ST, has said.
The State-level inauguration of the programme will be by Mr. Balan, at Vlavatti ST colony, Kallikkad panchayat, on Tuesday. The Onam kit, with nine items, has been readied at ₹790/kit. The government is spending ₹940 for every Onakkodi for women and ₹630 for the same for men.
A total of ₹17.5 crore is being spent for the Onam kits and for the Onakkodis. The Civil Supplies department has supplied the Onam kits while the clothes are being supplied by Hantex. While the allocation for the Onakkodi distribution has come from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, the funds for Onam kits have been sourced from the SC/ST department’s food assistance scheme. The Onam kit will contain 15kg rice, 500gm each of green gram, sugar and jaggery, one kg coconut oil, 250gm lentils, 200gm chilli powder, one kg salt and 200gm tea. The State also directed the District Collectors to coordinate the scheme and to ensure that both the kit as well as new clothes were distributed before Onam.
