Kolkata: Durga Puja theme artistes have decided to make a ‘no objection certificate’ mandatory for organisers from next year in an effort to curb the widespread practice of partial or withheld payments. The NOC will be issued by an artist only after a puja committee clears all dues. Artistes taking up work for a pandal next year will first check whether the committee has obtained an NOC from the artist engaged this year. “We are preparing a format for the NOC that will be issued after this year’s Durga Puja. Before artists agree to take on a pandal next year, they will check if the artist who has worked this year has issued an NOC. If the committee fails to furnish the NOC, the artist will ask the committee to first settle the payment with the concerned artist and get the NOC before accepting the work,” said Gouranga Kuila, vice-president of Ek Matrik, a forum of Durga Puja theme artists. Kuila said dues to artistes from last year’s Durga Puja alone amount to “well over Rs 1 crore”. Theme artistes said payment defaults usually take three forms: organisers withholding Rs 5-7 lakh despite the artistes meeting all commitments; committees planning ambitious budgets but failing to raise the money; and political leaders using their clout to get work done before refusing to pay the contracted amount.The issue has become more acute this year because of the political transition. Puja committees backed by politicians often delayed payments by a year, but with several TMC leaders associated with big-budget pujas losing elections and facing criminal cases, the future of those pujas — and the dues owed to artists who worked on them last year — has become uncertain.Over the past two decades, Durga Puja theme artistes have played a central role in transforming the traditional festival into a major celebration of art and sculpture, with pandals turning into large-scale installations across Kolkata. Their contribution, alongside the dossier prepared by art historian Tapati Guha Thakurta and her team, helped strengthen the case for Unesco inscribing Durga Puja in Kolkata on the representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
