LaptopNedumkandam: It is raining freebies in Tamil Nadu and the border areas of Kerala are awash with dirt-cheap electronic devices and household appliances. The cross-border peddlers are even offering discounts and EMIs on these goods to cash in on the Onam spending in Kerala.
Laptops, television sets, mixers, grinders, table fans and whatever the populist government in Tamil Nadu distributed among the people of the state to lap up votes have always found their way to the markets across the Kerala border.
If Tamil settlers and plantation laborers brought the goods to Idukki and other border areas previously, merchants have acted on the opportunity this year. They buy the freebies from Tamil families for a song and sell them at a premium in Kerala, where the freebie practice is yet to catch up.
The salesmen go door to door or put up stands by the roadsides. They sell a bouquet of equipment for Rs 5,000-Rs 8,000. A television costs as little as Rs 1,200 and up to Rs 2,100. A mixer comes at Rs 2,000 while a grinder is up for grabs for Rs 3,200.
Laptops offered to students of Tamil Nadu are sold in Kerala for anything between Rs 7,000 and Rs 12,000.
The cross-border enterprise has even formed an illegal smuggling infrastructure to sneak in the goods under the radar of officials who have cracked down on the movement of the curious cargo through the check posts.
An embarrassed Tamil Nadu administration had even conducted surprise checks in the plantation laborers’ colonies in Pooppara, Valppara, Santanpara and Udumbanchola areas more than a year ago for any freebies brought for sale in Kerala. The officials also conducted checks in Tamil-majority pockets in Kerala to see whether goods supplied as freebies had been lost.
