The Attukal Pongala this year will provide an opportunity for the city to flaunt its green image. Cloth used for printing banners and boards for the festival will be turned into shopping bags by Kudumbashree and sold to city residents at an affordable price. The Kudumbashree district mission has entered into an agreement with an advertising firm to reuse the cloth.
Balamurali Krishnan of the advertising firm says that with the ban on flex boards, the likelihood of a shift to cloth boards is more. The problem, though, is the difference in cost. While the cost of printing a flex board is ₹8 a sq.ft., that for cloth is ₹25 to ₹30. Another issue is removal of these banners after the events.
To address these issues, the firm has finalised a project after talks with the Kudumbashree district mission and the city Corporation. Under the project, the firm will print cloth banners and boards at ₹18 a sq ft and for those bringing the used banners back, the firm will pay back ₹6 a sq ft.
Parassala centre
The cloth thus collected will be handed over for free to a common facilitation centre of the Kudumbashree at Parassala to make cloth bags, which will be sold at ₹5 or ₹6.
The Parassala facilitation centre of the Kudumbashree that has been struggling to keep up production owing to the high cost of cloth will also get an opportunity to overcome a rough patch.
Over 2 lakh cloth bags are expected to reach the market under the agreement.
For the advertising firm, the bags will get publicity — the bags will carry its name and contact number.
Kudumbashree district coordinator K.R. Shaiju says the mission is helping realise the goal of a clean and plastic-free city through the project. Its members will get a decent income too, he says.