Confusion over actual financial burden on Bengal exchequer for Durga Puja grants

Kolkata, Aug 2 (IANS) Confusion is brewing within the West Bengal State Secretariat over the exact financial burden on the state exchequer following Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s recent announcement to enhance the annual grant for community Durga Puja committees this year.

The confusion stems from the exact number of community Durga Puja committees that would be entitled to the eligible state-sponsored grants, with contradictory figures surfacing.

While the “Forum for Durgotsav”, an umbrella body of the different community Durga Puja committees in West Bengal, has pegged the number at 43,000, the Chief Minister, in her announcement earlier this week, stated that a total of 45,000 community Durga Puja committees would receive the grant this year.

The Chief Minister quoted this figure while she announced that the annual dole amount to each Puja committee this year would be increased to Rs 1.10 lakh from Rs 85,000 last year.

If the figure of beneficiary Puja Committees this year is 45,000, as quoted by the Chief Minister herself, the total direct pay-out from the state exchequer will be Rs 495 crore, a 35 per cent rise over the previous year’s figure of Rs 365.5 crore.

Even if the figure for the number of beneficiary Puja Committees this year is 43,000, as per the records of “Forum for Durgotsav”, the total direct pay-out from the state exchequer will be Rs 473 crore, a 29 per cent rise over the previous year’s Rs 365.5 crore.

Insiders from the state finance department pointed out that while the figures mentioned above would be just the direct payout from the state exchequer, the actual expenditure would be much more, considering the massive 80 per cent electricity concessions provided to beneficiary Puja committees in addition to the annual dole.

Opposition parties have already lashed out at the state government over this enhanced Puja dole hike.

The leader of opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Thursday, appealed to the community Durga Puja Committees in West Bengal not to accept the annual dole from the government.

He urged them to do so in memory of the young woman doctor who was raped and murdered last August on the premises of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, and in solidarity with lakhs of unemployed youth in the state, whose aspirations, he alleged, have been crushed by flawed government policies.

Adhikari also announced full support to those community Durga Puja committees that choose to refuse the state government's dole offer this year.

--IANS

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