Hope of raking in during Puja dashed: Decorators, pandal workers

Jamshedpur/Ranchi: With the Puja organisers cutting corners and doing away with larger-than-life themed pandals, lighting and other decorative items in view of the government-issued guidelines, the decorators and workmen in Jharkhand are a worried lot.
“Big-sized decorative pandals and elaborate lighting used to bring in good business for the tent-house proprietors. But now with the government allowing only small pandals this year, our hopes of reviving business are lost,” All Decorators Sangarsh Samiti (ADSS) president Dinesh Sah said.
There are around 200 tent house decorators and 150 light and sound system service providers in Steel City who are staring at tough times ahead.
Some decorators even took out a foot march to the DC’s office earlier this month (October 7) to press for a financial relief package as the absence of large gatherings has ‘cost them dearly’. “Since the government has not allowed more than 50 people at gatherings, there’s no scope for us to earn,” Sah said.
As many as 250 Pujas are organised every year in Steel City and adjoining Seraikela and most of them spend on average Rs 4 lakh on pandals. The tent-house proprietors often bring in artisans from Bengal for constructing lavish pandals every year. “The pandals, decorative lights and installation of other crowd-pullers earned us huge profits every Ppuja,” decorator Rohit Kumar said.
But this year moderation is the buzzword. Chandan Bhattacharjee, who owns Anand Tent Lights and Caterers, said he has received an order from a Puja committee in Burma mines that only wants a small canopy sans the lighting and other decorative items. “Small pandals without the decoration and lighting require limited human resource and so I cannot engage all our labourers in that work. And without any work, I cannot pay them,” Bhattacharjee said.
The decorators said at least 10 labourers are required for building a tent.
“I have lost all hope,” Shree Krishna tent house owner Sudarshan Kumar said. “Unless the government relaxes the guidelines before the wedding season commences from November, I don’t know what we can do,” he said. He added that the labourers are the worst-hit by the government curbs since with no business, the proprietors cannot pay them.
In Ranchi, there is little work for workmen who make way from various parts of West Bengal to work on the 400-odd pandals every year. Sudhir Mandal, a pandal worker from Purulia’s Raghunathpur, said: “Every year, we work on the pandals for four-five months and earn handsomely. This year, the size of pandals has been reduced and construction has begun just a few days ago. I have lost a lot of money and Puja organizers have taken in just a handful of men to work on their pandals.”
Munchun Rai, the president of the Ranchi Railway Station Puja Committee, said: “Every year, we hire around 40-50 workers, craftsmen and artists to work on the pandal. This year, the area of pandal has been restricted to 400 square feet in comparison to the 10,000 square feet of 2019 and only five workers are at work. The budget has also been pruned to Rs 6 lakh this year from Rs 42 lakh in 2019.”