Onam fete may be scaled down

Thiruvananthapuram: With flood wreaking havoc across the state, the authorities are likely to scale down the Onam celebrations -  the traditional 10-day harvest festival of Kerala. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted yet another spell of heavy rains in the coming days across the state making celebrations very unlikely.  Last year Kerala had decided not to have any Onam celebration in the wake of vast devastation due to floods.

According to authorities, the decision on Onam celebration would be taken very soon. Sources said that an official declaration on whether to celebrate Onam or not would be taken in the next cabinet.

Tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran told DC that it's too early to make a decision on Onam celebrations. "As of now, our focus is totally on relief activities. Maybe we will be able to take a decision in this regard after two or three days," said Mr Surendran.

However, Mayor V.K. Prasanth said that everything depends on the rainfall. "If it's going to rain incessantly in the coming days like the MET department has predicted we will not be able to hold any kind of celebrations during Onam. If the rain doesn't worsen we may scale down the celebrations," Mr Prasanth added.