The Coimbatore City Corporation has inaugurated Green Diwali Shops run by women’s Self Help Groups (SHG) to sell traditional sweets in the city corporation here on Wednesday. As many as four SHGs are involved in the initiative that would function until Sunday.

According to Corporation Commissioner Dr K Vijayakarthikeyan, the shops will prepare sweets, including laddus and barfis with traditional ingredients like ragi, millet and green grams. “We are also preparing groundnut candies and sesame seed candies along with coconut barfis,” he said adding that along with the traditional delicacies, other Diwali sweets like laddu, jalebi and Milk Khoa are available in the shops.

The initiative is aimed at promoting traditional sweets, and improving the livelihood of the self-help group members. “People who buy the sweets will also be given free tree saplings on every purchase to improve the green cover in the city,” the official said.

The shop was inaugurated by the Minister for Municipal Administration and Rural Development S.P. Velumani.