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On October 16, the Calcutta High Court rejected to invalidate the State Government's notice which provided for expenses of Rs. 50,000 each for Committees/Organizers of the Durga Puja festivities all across the State. The two-judge Bench of Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Arijit Banerjee was hearing an appeal questioning the state government's decision and the morality of such grants. On September 24, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced the grant for the puja organizers.
The total expenditure to the treasury cash is to the tune of Rs.170 crore. The State states that the expense began after releasing an announcement on October 1 by the Home and Hill Affairs Department of the State.
The petitioner stated that the provision for the grant was not incorporated in the budget and hence has to be seen as a grant under Article 282 of the Constitution. It was mentioned that such provision may be resorted to only in an emergency situation and the grant must be for some public purpose. The fundamental principle on which the decision was criticized was that it ran counter to the basic feature of secularism of the Constitution. It competed that public money couldn't be wasted away even by the elected representatives in constitutional posts. The petitioner stressed that it might be against the constitutional philosophy to finance pujas for the purpose. The State argued that the grant had been made agreeable to the budget distribution and is strictly on the basis of the notification released on October 1.
This year’s budget papers referred the grant to puja organizers. It was obvious that Rs.40 crore was assigned for such purposes. The State claimed that if the legislature considered it fit to make a budgetary allocation for a grant to puja organizers, any objection must have been raised in the House itself and may not be carried to the Court at the time of disbursement.
The court stated that the money distributed should be used approximately by 25 per cent for the purpose of activities that reinforce the relationship between police authorities and the citizens and also for enabling the participation of women in supporting community policing activities. The rest of the money should be used strictly for the purpose of obtaining masks, hand sanitizers, face shields, etc. for use in and around the puja area.
All the expenditures should be backed by proper bills and vouchers to validate the operation certificates that must be submitted in terms of the notification of October 1. The utilization certificates and the documents in support must be submitted to the Sub-Divisional Officers of the districts and to the designated officers within the jurisdiction of the Kolkata Police by November 10, 2020.
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