No sunshine to dry up idols: says Puja organiser

BALURGHAT: As Balurghat is preparing to celebrate Durga Puja, incessant rain for over two days played the spoilsport. Moderate to heavy downpours for over 48 hours has brought to grinding halt on necessary preparations to put up pandals while the big budget puja organisers are in big trouble to complete the pending tasks ahead of the festival to be kicked off just after eight days.

"We have only a few days left for final celebrations. Incessant rain has dampened our hope. Due to adverse weather, we are in dilemma to complete everything in due time. The idol makers need good sunshine to dry up the idols," said Mrityunjay Kundu, an organiser of Pragati Sangha, a local club.

According to him, most of the idols are covered with the plastic sheets to avoid rain water. "Most of the idols have not been coloured at all. The idol makers have been engaged in working day and night but their efforts have gone into vain due to foul weather. We have set our target to build a gigantic pandal to celebrate diamond jubilee this year but the work on colouring and decorating the gate stopped for two days," he said. Notably, the organisers are keeping their fingers crossed for the festive period to be started with less than two weeks.

"Rainfall has affected our preparations definitely. We are celebrating golden jubilee in 2019 and we have focused on theme based eco-friendly pandal but the work due to the nagging untimely rains has stopped. Around 50 percentage work on decoration on the outer part of the pandal is unfinished," said another organiser Ramkrishna Saha of Amrita Sangha.

According to a source, big budget puja organisers like Avijatri, Kochikala Academy, Srijanee Sangha, Uttamasha and Netaji Smriti Club have doubts if they would be able to finish the pending work on time.

"We have no permanent pandal and that is why we have to depend on decorated pandal. Neither our pandal nor Idol is complete. If the adverse weather continues this week, we would surely fail to reach the target," said organiser of Kochikala Academy Gopal Bhattacharjee.

Local meteorological officials said this weekend, which will flag off the festivities, with Mahalaya on Saturday, could witness heavy rainfall.

According to a Met official, there will be moderate rainfall in the city and some other parts across South Dinajpur for a few more days after which the condition is likely to improve.