A Durga Puja pandal (Representational pic)The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to interfere in the West Bengal government’s decision to extend a grant of Rs 60,000 each to over 40,000 Durga Puja committees in the state, but issued guidelines for the proper utilisation of the fund and sought a report on the spending by December 15.
“We are not inclined to interfere in the decision of the state to extend the grant to puja committees,” a division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj said in its judgment.
According to the court, the grant will be released to only those clubs/puja committees which had the previous year utilised the fund for the purpose it was granted to them and had duly submitted the utilisation certificate within time.
“The puja committees will submit the utilisation certificate, along with the supporting vouchers, to the sub-divisional officers in the districts and the designated officers within the jurisdiction of the Kolkata Police not later than 15th of November, 2022,” the court ordered.
According to the court order, it will be the responsibility of the police, through which grants will be distributed, to ensure that the grant is utilised for public purposes.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had last month announced Rs 60,000 each for 43,000 Durga Puja committees in the state. Soon after the announcement, PILs were filed against her decision on the ground that the grant has nothing to do with public welfare and that Durga Puja is a private affair.
The court directed that the competent officers of the state government would duly scrutinise these utilisation certificates and ascertain if the amount distributed to the clubs/puja committees was utilised for the purpose mentioned in a West Bengal government order of September 6 or not and would submit the report before this court by 15th of December, 2022.
The bench directed that the guidelines issued in the previous orders of the court should be complied with.
Banerjee had in 2018 announced Rs 10,000 each for 28,000 puja committees. Later, the CM increased the amount to Rs 25,000 for 30,000 clubs and allotted Rs 30,000 to the clubs helmed by women. The grant amount was further increased to Rs 50,000 in 2020 and since then it remained unchanged.