Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday announced liberal largesse to the clubs organising Durga Puja prompting the Opposition BJP and Left to link her actions with next year’s Assembly elections.
The Chief Minister’s latest announcement include a grant of Rs 50,000 to the clubs organising Durga Puja. This apart, Banerjee also announced a 50 percent rebate in electricity charges for the Puja committees and requested the private-owned Calcutta Electricity Supply Corporation to follow suit. Last year the State Government had allowed only 10 percent rebate in power charges for the Durga Puja committees.
There are aobut 28,000 Durga Puja committees in Bengal and the dole could cost the Government about 200 crore, sources said.
Besides, she said that no tax would be charged by the municipal authorities including Kolkata, Howrah, Asansol and Siliguri Municipal corporations and panchayats were. The Fire Brigade Department too would not charge any fees from the Puja organisers, Banerjee said.
She also said that this year round the much bandied Durga Puja carnival would not be organised so as to maintain the corona protocols.
Banerjee who also announced a number of “dos” and “dont's” for the Puja organisers --- like making open pandals for better air circulation --- said she could not impose restriction on Pujas fearing politics.
“People are doing politics regarding this. If I don’t allow puja, they will say look they didn’t allow puja to be celebrated,” she said, adding “We will virtually show Durga puja and also announces prize on the virtual platform.”
With sponsorships coming in trickles in post-corona period the clubs have been under great stress to organise the Pujas. “This has come as a great relief to us. The Chief Minister has given us Rs 50,000 apart from granting rebate in taxes. This will help the Puja committees to a great extent. We thank the Chief Minister for her gesture,” said an organiser from South Kolkata.
The Chief Minister’s declaration comes within a fortnight of announcing special allowances for the Hindu priests which the BJP dismissed as a pre-electoral bribe to the Hindu community to balance out her pro-Muslim bias which she had exhibited soon after coming to power when she announced allowances for Imams and Muezzins.
Rejecting her decision to back the Puja organisers BJP leader Sayantan Basu said “it is too little and too late … the Chief Minister knows that she is on her way out as the Hindu community which accounts for more than 73 percent votes has woken up and united against her discriminative politics … this was shown in the 2019 parliamentary elections. Now any amount of sop would be treated as a bribe by the Hindus and rejected… The Hindus do not want bribe but they want their rights and prestige back which Mamata Banerjee cannot give them.”
CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakrabarty said “Mamata Banerjee had been bribing the local clubs who organise vote from the day she came to power. She has given several hundred crore to the clubs in the last few years from the tax payers’ pockets … the money thus given apparently came back to the party fund in the form of donation… This years’ grant and other concessions is another proof of how the TMC and the BJP are competing with each other along communal lines violating the constitutional norms.
“Instead of organising massive movements against the draconian anti-people farm bill and the dilution of essential commodities act and other labour laws she is playing communal politics to counter the BJP. The people are watching this.”