Little joy for appliqué hub in season of fests

PIPILI: With three days to go for Rath Yatra, a stretch falling between the state capital and the temple town wears a deserted look, even as tourists pour into the state in large numbers.
Located about 20 kilometres from Bhubaneswar, the appliqué artists in Pipili narrate their battle for survival and say that if the state government took a little more interest in them, they would not have faced the present crisis.
"Look at the road here, who would want to drive through this?" asks Ramesh Chandra Patnaik, general secretary of Pipili Appliqué Cluster and the owner of Appliqué International.
Damaged, potholed roads, poor drainage system, lack of facilities for tourists, hardly any proper toilets, the list of problems here is long.
"It is shameful for a famous place like Pipili, where so many people earn their living through art and appliqué work, to be in such a situation. At least with such a big festival round the corner, the state government should have been more careful," Mohapatra adds.
Pipili Bazaar Byabsayee Sangha, an association of the businessmen here, sent a letter to chief minister Naveen Patnaik and agriculture minister Pradip Maharathy, listing the problems plaguing the place.
A key demand is to bring Pipili on the route of tourists going to or coming from Puri. "Tourist buses can use the highway while going to Puri or Konark, but while they return, they may be directed to pass through Pipili, so that we can get a boost," Jabar Khan, the president of Pipili Appliqué Cluster and the owner of Diamond Appliqué, says.
Lack of demand has affected the artisans here. "We can work for long hours, but if people are not buying our products, it is hardly of any benefit," Rashmi Barik, 32, says.
Other shop owners Mukhtar Mohammad of Rajanigandha Appliqué Workshop and Benudhar Mohapatra of Shubham Appliqué Workshop say earlier Pipili used to get 250-300 tourists a day, but the number has dropped to as low as 25-30. "There are about 80 shops here, so you can understand how many customers we might be getting a day," a shopkeeper says.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari last week announced setting up of a highway village with 100 art and craft stalls, eating joints and other amenities to make the place tourist-friendly. Rs 10 crores had been earmarked for the project earlier.
"We are hopeful of a change in the scenario. But that would not happen now. The entire state is celebrating the Rath Yatra, which coincides with Eid. If the government considered our problems earlier, we could have been happy too," Khan adds.