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Calcutta HC likely to hear PILs challenging Mamata’s Durga Puja grant today
Mamata Banerjee had announced the grant given to each of the 40,000-plus registered puja committees will be raised from ₹50,000 to ₹60,000 this year
The Calcutta high court is likely to hear the Public Interest Litigations (PILs), challenging the grants given by the Mamata Banerjee administration to over 40,000 community Durga Pujas in West Bengal on Friday.
On Monday, Banerjee had announced the grant given to each of the 40,000-plus registered puja committees will be raised from ₹50,000 to ₹60,000 this year.
She also waived municipal taxes and increased the discount on electricity bills from 50% to 60% for the puja committees.
This is expected to cost the state ex-chequerer more than ₹250crore.
At least three PILs were filed in the Calcutta high court following the government’s decision challenging the rationale behind it.
Also Read: Mamata Banerjee announces month-long Durga Puja celebration starting from Sept 1
“Three PILs have been filed separately. The last one was filed on Thursday. The matter has been listed for today,” said an advocate of the high court.
This is, however, not the first time that such PILs have been filed in the high court challenging the government’s grants to puja committees.
In 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic was raging, similar PILs were filed against government grants to puja committees that year.
The Calcutta high court had then directed that the Durga Puja organisers will have to spend 75% of the state government’s ₹50,000 grant for procuring safety equipment such as masks and sanitizers which will have to be distributed to pandal hoppers.
The government’s decision has already triggered a political slugfest with the opposition attacking the TMC government alleging that it has not paid dearness allowance to the state government employees.
“The state government hasn’t paid DA to the employees despite the orders of the Calcutta high court. It is deceiving lakhs of employees. The state’s capital expenditure has come down to half. Roads and river embankments are not being repaired. There is no investment. Despite all this, she is distributing public money. This is very unfortunate,” said Samik Bhattacharya, BJP state spokesman.
However, TMC leader Santanu Sen hit back at the opposition saying they can’t tolerate the fact that UNESCO has given the Kolkata’s Durga Puja celebrations a heritage tag.
“The UNESCO has given a heritage tag to Kolkata’s Durga Puja and a team from the UN body will participate in a rally in Kolkata on September 1. The opposition can’t tolerate this. When Banerjee is promoting the puja committees, political parties which fool the people on the lines of sanatan dharma before the elections, are moving the court to obstruct this,” said the TMC MP.
