Rajamahendravaram: Corona hits business of POP Ganesh idol makers

Rajamahendravaram: Plaster of Paris (POP) Vinayaka idol makers are facing a tough time this year because of Covid-19. The idol makers are expressing concern about their business during this August.

Because of the government restrictions on spiritual programmes, many Vinayaka festival organizers not coming forward to buy the Vinayaka idols made with POP by investing more money on them. The price of a Vinayaka idol depends on its size and also single or multi colour. The single colour idol costs from Rs 500 to Rs 10,000 and a multi-colour idol costs from Rs 2,000 to Rs 20,000.

In and around the historical city at about 200 Rajasthani people involved in making the POP idols. Some Rajasthani families have been residing in the city from two decades. They are expressing fear that their business turnover may be Rs 1 lakh this year, as against of Rs 3 lakh earlier. The government has no accurate details about the pollution levels of POP after they immersed in tanks, rivers after the nine-day festival.

According to a POP idol maker Dularam, their entire family are engaged in making idols. It will take one to 15 days to make the idols basing on its size and colour. Along with Corona, the negative publicity on the usage of POP idols by many organizations also posing problem.

Because of this, many are using clay idols from many years which is also a blow to the business. Protecting the Vinayaka idols is also a difficult task as the festival comes in rainy season and the idols leftover are not useful. Painting of colours mainly multi-colours to POP idols consumes much time, he added.