Jalpaiguri 29th September: The novel coronavirus has cast a shadow over Durga Puja, the biggest festival of West Bengal. In view of this, the state government has issued guidelines for Durga Puja according to which no cultural programme during the festival will be permitted.
Meanwhile, many puja committees have decided not to organise puja this year. Due to which, the demand for Durga idols has drastically gone down this year. As a result, the idol makers of Jalpaiguri have made significantly fewer sculptures as compared to the previous years.
Idol makers around the state await Durga Puja throughout the year in hope of earning well. Every year each sculptor would easily earn up to 1 lakh rupees. But this year the earning has come down to 17 to 25 thousand rupees.
Recently, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced to give 50 thousand rupees to the puja committees. After this many clubs have decided to organize puja due to which the demand for the idols has increased slightly. However, with very few idols in stock, the sculptors are not being able to meet the demand.
Satyalal Sarkar, a sculptor, stated that the little number of orders will not provide any benefit to them. He hoped for the Gods to have mercy on them.