Calcutta HC Directs State To File Affidavit On Disbursal Of Allowance For Durga Puja, Refuses To Stay Disbursal

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently announced that allowance for Durga Puja organisers, which was Rs 75,000 in 2023, would be raised to Rs 85,000 this year.

Hearing a petition seeking a stop to the disbursal of the allowance to Durga Puja organisers by the state, the Court directed the state government to file an affidavit on the petitioner's prayer for an audited report of the CAG on disbursal of funds to clubs and NGOs and utilisation of the money by these organisations.

Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam told Advocate General Kishore Dutta, representing the West 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.

The Court noted that the West Bengal government gives a paltry Rs 1,000 to a person suffering from disability owing to muscular dystrophy.

The Chief Justice said that there are more pressing issues like the plight of the contract workers, daily wage earners and badli (replacement) workers.

He also said that PWD workers deputed to the High Court were not being paid minimum wages.

The division bench, also comprising Justice Bivas Pattanayak, however, did not grant a prayer for an order to the state government restraining it from giving rebate on electricity charges to the puja organisers, holding that this may have a public purpose as proper lighting and infrastructural facilities are required at the pandals.

The Court said that it is of the view that disbursement of state funds to the puja organisers may be for a laudable purpose to encourage the committees to set up puja pandals as it is part of the cultural heritage of the state.

"Going by the amount of funds which are being infused for establishing such puja pandals, we are of the prima facie view that the amount of Rs 85,000 can hardly meet the cost of establishing a puja pandal and carrying out other activities for the entire period of puja.

"Thus 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.

The bench said the nature of expenditure has to be minuted and submitted to the authorities in the light of an earlier order of September, 2022 and other earlier orders on the issue.

Petitioner's Advocate Nandini Mitra submitted that it is alarming that accounts of expenditure were not being provided by various Durga Puja committees on the dole provided by the West Bengal government.

Mitra stated that despite non-submission of expenditure accounts, funds were being disbursed to the clubs for providing financial assistance for holding Durga Puja year after year.

The state's lawyer submitted that a petition on the issue was disposed of by the High Court in October 2020, and a report was also filed by the government as per the direction of the Court.

On the prayer for setting aside the state government's decision to disburse funds to clubs on account of the festival and rebate on cost of electricity, the Court noted that the disbursement has already taken place.

The 2020 order had also directed the CAG to submit a detailed report on disbursal and accounts of expenditure by the recipients.

With PTI Inputs