Kolkata, 20 August (H.S.)

Legal controversy has once again arisen over the grant given by the West Bengal government to Durga Puja committees. On Wednesday, the state government made a formal appeal in the Calcutta High Court to dismiss the PILs filed on this issue.

Advocate General Kishore Dutt argued before the court that This matter arises every year, but as soon as the Puja is over, the petitioners and people forget it. Since it has no practical basis, the petition should be dismissed. The case was heard in the division bench of Justice Sujoy Pal and Justice Smita Das De.

At the same time, the lawyers of the petitioners strongly opposed the stand of the state government. They argued that giving grants to religious events from the public treasury is against the constitutional principles. He said, On one hand, the grant amount is being continuously increased, while on the other hand, the bills of health, education and other important sectors are not being paid on time. Apart from this, no concrete audit of the use of grant is also available. The court heard the arguments of both the parties, but the hearing could not be completed on Wednesday. Now the next hearing of this case will be held on Monday. It is worth mentioning that this year the government has decided to give a grant of one lakh ten thousand rupees to each Puja committee, which is about thirty percent more than last year's 85 thousand. If about 45 thousand Puja committees of the state get this assistance, the total expenditure will reach about Rs 495 crore. Two PILs have been filed challenging this decision. One of these petitions has been filed by Durgapur resident Sourav Dutta, who had filed a petition on the same issue last year as well, but then the court had rejected that petition. It is worth noting that the tradition of giving financial assistance to Durga Puja committees started in the year 2018, when this amount was only ten thousand rupees. After this, it became twenty-five thousand rupees in 2019, then gradually increasing every year, it became eighty-five thousand rupees in July 2023, and now in 2025 it has been increased to one lakh ten thousand rupees.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey