Ludhiana: The rising prices of crackers and other material have increased the cost of effigies of Ravana, Meghnath and Kumbhakaran by up to four times in the past few years.The management committees organising Dussehra fairs claimed that it was not easy to get these effigies prepared due to high cost of material and crackers. But they also felt that there would be no festival if there are no effigies.Though they have not shortened the effigies, they use less crackers in making the same.The tallest effigy of Ravana (80 feet) will again be on Daresi ground while other committees have also kept the height of effigies between 40 and 60 feet.The committee members, however, termed this inflation as a good thing for environment as bursting of less crackers means less air pollution.Effigy makers have also started to charge more than previous years.Tota Ram, an artist preparing effigies in Daresi, said, “I have been coming to the city to prepare the effigies since 2004. And everything has become costly in the past 14 years. In the beginning, I used to get Rs 60 to prepare effigies, but now I get Rs 25,000. So, one can judge how the rates have increased in the past decade or so.”Kamal Bassi, member from Sri Ram Leela Dushehra Committee Daresi, said, “We have not reduced the height of effigy of Ravana as our Dussehra is the oldest in the city. But, the cost has certainly increased manifold. The effigies are now being prepared in lakhs.”He said Dushehra is incomplete without showing the victory of good over evil and for that effigies have to be burnt. “But we use lesser crackers than we did in the previous years,” said he added.Brij Mohan Kalia, president, Rajguru Nagar Dushehra Committee, said their Ravana will be of 50 feet which will cost them more than Rs 1 lakh. He said they can keep the height of Ravana up to 65 feet, but there is a space constraint in the locality. Kalia said, “We do not seek donations and entire celebration is done through contribution by members. But now things are getting expensive day by day. So we use lesser crackers in effigies.”Shiv Dial Gupta, president, Sri Ram Leela Dussehra Committee, Aggar Nagar, said, “We have increased the height of effigy from 40 feet to 50 feet but we have reduced the quantity of crackers to only 10%. The crackers create pollution and moreover our fair is celebrated inside locality and we have decided to avoided crackers.” He said everything has become costly and so do the effigies of Ravana, Meghnath and Kumbhkaran.

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