THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Latecomers are missing the special ingredients announced by the government in the free Onam food kit. Complaints are rampant over the absence of cashew, cardamom, ghee and banana chips in kits distributed after Thiruvonam.
Fifty-three-year-old Shyamala in Thiruvananthapuram is among the thousands of people who received a kit which lacked the festival spirit. “I’m working as a domestic maid and couldn’t visit the shop before Onam. I collected the kit on Tuesday. It didn’t have banana chips or payasam ingredients like cashew, cardamom or ghee. There were only 12 items in total, compared to 16 items announced by the government,” she said.
According to Supplyco, which prepares the kit, the change in the content of the kit was due to shortage of certain items. “There is a shortage of items like cashew. Packing depots have been asked to make suitable replacements with items of the same value. For example, the cashew packet is replaced by one kg sugar as both are priced at `40,” said Supplyco’s managing director Ali Asgar Pasha.
But the replacements did not bring cheer to the people catered by less creative depots. “The replacement for cashew, cardamom, ghee and chips was one kg extra wheat flour. Barring a packet of semiya, it looked like the free kit received in other months,” said a beneficiary in the city.
But there were depots which made smart replacements. For instance, a beneficiary in Attingal received biscuit, rava and black gram as replacements for the festival items. The change in items is causing difficulty to ration dealers as well.