Artists of Raghurajpur blame government for dip in business

BHUBANESWAR: Residents and artists of Raghurajpur alleged that the state government was indifferent towards the unique village, which has contributed immensely to placing Odisha on the global tourist map. They said the state government had not been taking steps for the infrastructure development of the village. Due to lack of promotion and marketing, the number of visitors to Raghurajpur had gone down, they said.
“The number of tourists visiting Raghurajpur has reduced significantly due to the bad condition of the road leading into the village from Chandanpur. It has become narrow because of encroachment by local vendors. Besides, the signboard for the village is not clearly visible. As a result, many visitors find it difficult to locate the road to Raghurajpur. The railway underpass is so low that tourist buses cannot come to the village,” said Akash Swain, secretary of Raghurapur Village Committee.

The artists of Raghurajpur also alleged that tourists, on their way to the village, were often waylaid by the people of Basudeipur and persuaded to buy craft products from their shops. “By the time they reach Raghurajpur, they are exhausted. This has affected our business as well,” Swain pointed out.

The village has 140 households with more than 600 artists trained in various arts and crafts. They are skilled in making traditional crafts such as pattachitras, palmleaf engravings, wooden carvings, tribal paintings, paper toys, cowdung toys and Ganjappa cards. Besides, the village is famous for the traditional gotipua dance.

“Raghurajpur is unique in many ways. If government does not take proper care of the artists, many of them will be forced to move from the village. We hope the government will promote the village and ask tour operators to bring tourists here,” he said.

They also urged the government to complete various development works of the village that have been lying incomplete since 2015-16.