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Give Rs 10 lakh to every Durga Puja Committee

  • Calcutta HC’s notice to Bengal Govt

  • Rs 85,000 given by the Government is meagre amount

Kolkata – In a sarcastic remark, the Calcutta High Court on Monday said the Bengal government may consider giving Rs 10 lakh to each Durga Puja committee, as the current Rs 85,000 appears to be meagre amount.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently announced that the dole for Durga Puja organisers, which was Rs 75,000 in 2023, would be raised to Rs 85,000 this year. Hearing a petition by the petitioner advocate Nandini Mitra, seeking a stop to the disbursal of dole to Durga Puja organisers by state, the court directed the State Government to file an affidavit on the petitioner’s request for an audited report of the CAG on disbursal of funds to clubs and NGOs and utilisation of the money by these organisations. However, the HC did not ban the allocation of funds.

1. Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam told Advocate General Kishore Dutta, representing the Bengal Government, that the State should consider giving Rs 10 lakh to each organiser as that would be commensurate to conducting the puja, saying that Rs 85,000 is nothing compared to the expenditure required to celebrate the Durga puja. The Chief Justice said that he visited several Durga Puja pandals in the two previous years and felt that Rs 85,000 is nothing compared to the expenditure made in organising it and those are probably utilised for the expenses of the organisers.

2. “What remains to be seen is how the funds are utilised,” the court said, holding that the committees which received such funds are accountable to the state.

3. The petition also sought to stop the concession on electricity charges in the pooja mandap; but the court also rejected this demand. The court held that the exemption from expenditure on lighting could be a public objective; because the lighting system in the pavilion fulfils the basic infrastructure requirements.

Editorial Perspective

This appears to be the first time that instructions have been given to the Government to extend financial assistance to the Hindus’ festival. This is a good sign for Hindus.

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