THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Onam week celebrations will be held from September 3 to 9 in the capital. The inaugural function of the event will be held at Nishagandhi Auditorium on September 3. The Onam week celebrations be held in 30 venues in the capital. A grand valedictory function will be held on September 9, Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will be the chief patron of the organising committee chaired by the Tourism Minister. The patrons of the committee are: Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, Culture Minister A K Balan, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, Mayor V K Prasanth, Deputy Speaker V Sasi, MPs Shashi Tharoor, A Sampath, C P Narayanan and Suresh Gopi.
District panchayat president V K Madhu, KTDC Chairman M Vijayakumar and MLAs of the district are the deputy patrons. C Divakaran MLA will be the working chairman of the committee. MLAs K Muraleedharan and O Rajagopal will be the vice chairman of the organising committee Tourism Secretary V Venu will be the chief coordinator and Tourism Director P Bala Kiran will be the convenor.
The chairmen of various committees are: I B Satheesh MLA (programme committee), V S Sivakumar MLA (infrastructure committee), B Sathyan MLA (media and publicity committee), K Ansalan MLA (trade fair and exhibition committee), M Vincent MLA (food festival committee), V Joy MLA (sponsorship committee) and State Police Chief Loknath Behera (security commitee).
MLAs D K Murali and K S Sabarinadhan have been chosen as the chairman and co-chairman of the Onam pageantry committee. The Onam week celebrations will be held in accordance with the Green Protocol. A committee chaired by Mayor V K Prasanth and Suchitwa Mission Executive Director K Vasuki has been constituted to ensure implementation of the Green Protocol. The meeting to select the organising committee was attended by MLAs C Divakaran, O Rajagopal, C K Hareendran, V Joy, D K Murali, K Ansalan, M Vincent, Mayor V K Prasanth and Tourism Director P Bala Kiran.