More than 2,000 decorators, tent house owners, florists, wedding band operators and marriage hall owners of Dhanbad, who have suffered huge losses because of the lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, are now demanding compensation from the government.

A rough estimate by the office bearers of Dhanbad Zilla Decorators’ Association suggests that they have suffered a loss of over Rs 500 crore following the cancellation of marriages during the lockdown.

There were 33 marriage dates in March, April and May, but only a few weddings took place. Other events such as political meetings and public rallies were also conspicuous by their absence.

President of Dhanbad Zilla Decorators’ Association Pradeep Singh said: “We are the worst victim of the lockdown. We are finding it difficult to make payments to a large number of our employees and contractual workers who erect tents, install the lights and operate generators.”

He said more than 80,000 local people were directly or indirectly engaged by the decorators, caterers and band operators all the whom had fallen on hard times because of the lockdown.

“We have no money to pay the rent of godowns where we stock bamboo, tarpaulin, generators and lighting equipment. To add to the woes, we also have pay EMIs for loans taken from banks to purchase vehicles meant for the transportation of equipment,” Singh said.

He said if the situation continued till November, when a lot of marriages take place, they would all go bankrupt. “We want the Centre state government to provide some financial support to compensate for our losses and help us sustain ourselves in this hour of crisis,” Singh said.

He said 2020 was likely to be the worst year for them in terms of business.