The Durga Ratna Award—instituted by the Raj Bhavan this year on the suggestion of Governor CV Ananda Bose for the best Durga Pujas in Bengal, and deemed a parallel to the state government’s Biswa Bangla Sharad Samman—has been given to four Durga Pujas in the state.

The four are Kalyani ITI Luminous Club in Kalyani in Nadia district, Netaji Colony Lowland Committee and Bandhudal Sporting Club in Baranagar in North 24 Parganas district, and Tala Prattoy Durga Puja in Kolkata.

Controversially, though, all four have refused to accept the award. The decisions, though not explicitly said so by all, look like being influenced by politics, with the governor being known to court controversy with the ruling party every now and then.

After an initial honeymoon period, during which Ananda Bose even expressed the desire to Mamata Banerjee at a public meeting to learn Bengal, the governor and the Trinamool Congress-led Bengal government, including Mamata Banerjee, have mostly been at loggerheads. A notable exception to that came up recently when he met and promised Abhishek Banerjee to take up with the Union government the issue of the former’s huge dues to the latter on account of the MGNREGA (100 Days’ Work) Scheme, which he did the very next day in New Delhi.

While Kalyani ITI, whose pandal was modelled on the Grand Lisboa luxury hotel in Macau, cited the non-payment of MGNREGA dues to lakhs of people in Bengal as the reason, and said it would be happy if the governor distributed the money among these deprived people, Tala Prattoy claimed it did not participate in the contest; the latter thanked Raj Bhavan for giving it the award. Both had rejected on Wednesday. Kalyani ITI also expressed the issue of the procedure for selecting the club.

Each Durga Ratna award comprises a cash component of Rs 5 lakh.

Incidentally, Trinamool Congress leaders Balaram Majhi and Arup Mukherjee are among the patrons of Kalyani ITI Luminous Club. Mukherjee, also a councillor of Kalyani municipality, is the chief patron.

Netaji Colony Lowland Committee had expressed its inability to accept the award yesterday morning, while the other awardee from Baranagar, Bandhudal Sporting Club did so today.

Today, Baranagar MLA Tapas Roy from the Trinamool Congress held a press conference and announced the decisions of the two clubs from his area to decline the award. He too cited the reason of non-payment of MGNREFA dues by the Centre, saying they cannot accept the award when the ‘Durgas’ of Bengal are being deprived of their rightful dues.

Coincidentally, former Food Minister Jyotipriya Mallick’s house was raided yesterday by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the ration card scam, and he was arrested very early in the morning today.