Durga Puja donations: Calcutta HC asks petitioner to make representation to Bengal govt for audit

Kolkata, Sep 5 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Thursday asked the petitioner, who has filed a PIL challenging the hike in the annual donations to different community Puja committees on the occasion of the state's biggest and most popular festival, to make a representation to the Bengal government for a proper audit of the utilisation of the funds.

Hearing the public interest litigation, a division bench of Chief Justice T. S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya observed that only after the representation is served to the state government, can the hearing in the matter start at the earliest.

The Chief Justice also observed that he had heard that several committees this year have refused to accept the state government's donation.

The trend of state government donations to the community Puja committees started in 2011 immediately after the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress came to power ending the 34-year Left Front rule.

Initially, it started with just Rs 25,000 for every committee and over the years, the amount was gradually increased to Rs 85,000. The Chief Minister has already announced that next year the amount will be increased to Rs 1,00,000.

However, this year several Puja committees have refused to accept the state government's donation to protest the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata.

The office bearers of these committees have claimed that although they might have to curtail some festival-related expenditures, they would do it.

Even a theatre group based out of Malda district rejected the state government's donation to organise a theatre fair. Individually, some playwrights and actors have announced their decision to return the state government-conferred award and cash prize to protest the incident.

In his PIL, Sourav Dutta has questioned the source of funds that will be shelved out for this donation purpose and sought a proper audit by an independent agency on how the donations paid to the clubs during the last few years have been utilised by the club authorities concerned.

The petitioner also questioned the justification of increasing the donation amount to the clubs year after year when the state government was unable to pay the enhanced dearness allowance to its employees or other essential expenditures.