Slowdown forces budget cuts in Durga Puja

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 09 Oktober 2013 | 23.25

Even as the country prepares and looks forward to the festive season, there is a slight dampener this time around. The economic slowdown seems to be having an impact on the Durga Puja celebrations. The Puja organisers of Kolkata are struggling to stay afloat despite drastic cuts in budgets.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the Barisha club community puja in West Kolkata. But despite political patronage, organisers were forced to slash their budgets by 30 percent owing to the countrywide economic slowdown.

Also read: FY14 CAD may be lower than estimated $70bn: Rangarajan

"We have saved a lot of money by using clay as the basic raw material for our pandal. We have also drastically curtailed individual budgets for food and lights," said the puja organiser Animesh Chakraborty.

Organisers of the 38-year old puja at Sanghasree in Kalighat say this has been the worst year in two decades. Despite cutting their budget by 40 percent, they were unable to meet expenditures through sponsorships.

"Those who have any kind of political patronage are attracting 95 percent of sponsorship budget. Others like us which are only social and cultural organisations are facing the heat," said Debasish Sengupta, Treasurer, Sanghasree, Kalighat.

However, the Singhi Park puja committee in the posh locality of Dover Lane claims that it has not been affected by the slowdown. "Obviously there is a geographical advantage because of our location. Plus we have been maintaining a high standard of puja for quite some time now. So the corporate houses preferred to invest in our puja," said Bhaskar Nandi, Joint Secretary, Singhi Park Puja Committee.

The impact is obvious. But so is the desperation of the puja organisers who are willing to risk it all for the five-day celebration. And as far as the puja expenses are concerned, there's always the mother goddess as final recourse.



Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Slowdown forces budget cuts in Durga Puja

Dengan url

https://gayafashionshow.blogspot.com/2013/10/slowdown-forces-budget-cuts-in-durga.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Slowdown forces budget cuts in Durga Puja

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Slowdown forces budget cuts in Durga Puja

sebagai sumbernya

0 komentar:

Posting Komentar

techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger