Calcutta High Court allows Durga Puja grant, with 6 conditions
The Calcutta High Court quashed three PILs filed against Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and thus paved the way for the disbursal of the grant of Rs 60,000 per Durga Puja committee to the more than 40,092 committees, announced earlier by her
The PILs had been filed on the basis that when so many people still lack access to food, clean water, electricity and medicine, donating the money was a luxury, which the state government should not be allowed to have.
The High Court bench, however, said that since the money was to be used for organising the Pujas and promoting other cultural activities, there was nothing wrong with the grants. It also paid heed to the state government’s argument that since UNESCO has inscribed ‘Durga Puja in Kolkata’ as one of the world’s Intangible Cultural Heritages, the grants have acquired added importance.
The six conditions are:
- All the previous guidelines issued by the Calcutta High Court on this issue must be complied with.
- The grant can be given to only those clubs which had utilised the grant given last year, for a similar purpose, for the purpose it was intended for and had submitted utilisation certificates within time.
- The grant will be distributed through West Bengal Police and Kolkata Police, and therefore, whose responsibility it would be to ensure that the money is used for the public purpose as stated in the high court order dated September 6, 2022.
- It will be the responsibility of the Bengal director-general of police (DGP) to ensure that the grant is not used for any purpose other than those stated in the September 6 order.
- The Puja committees must submit utilisation certificates, along with supporting vouchers, by November 15, 2022—to the subdivisional officers (SDOs) in the case of district Pujas and to the designated officers in the case of Kolkata Police in the case of Kolkata Pujas.
- The state government must scrutinise all certificates and vouchers and ascertain if the funds were used for the purposes stated in the September 6 order, and submit a detailed report to the high court by December 15, 2022.
