This year, the newly formed Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, currently run by a board of administrators, has set the cat among the pigeons by invoking a set of rules related to Durga puja that has so far existed only on paper. 
This year, puja organisers in the township have been asked to pay charges for erecting temporary gates as well as hanging hoardings and banners during the Puja days. 

The charges were introduced by the Trinamul Congress-led board of the now-defunct Bidhannagar Municipality in 2011 but was rarely enforced.

According to the vice-chairman of the erstwhile municipality and member of the board of administrators Sabyasachi Dutta, very few puja committees actually paid for hoardings and gates.

“Although the decision to make commercial banners, hoardings and gates taxable was taken by our board we rarely enforced it. I cannot recall any puja committee paying these charges. We did not force them to pay up either because there is a lot of sentiment attached to the Pujas among people,” said Dutta.

“There were some charges during my time but I cannot recall if any puja committee paid for gates, banners or other installations ever,” Malay Mukhopadhyay, who was the sub-divisional officer of Salt Lake in 2011-2013, told The Telegraph Salt Lake.

Tariff tale

A rate chart has been drawn up to elucidate the structure of the municipal charges to the organisers. These have been hung up on walls at the three single-window counters set up to issue no-objection certificates from fire service, pollution control board, electricity board, police and the civic body to puja organisers at Bidhannagar north, Lake Town and New Town police stations.

While block pujas need to cough up Rs 3,000 as permission fees, pujas held in housing complexes are supposed to pay Rs 1,500 for the same.

Most Durga pujas in Salt Lake erect makeshift stages on which cultural programmes take place on all festive days. Such a stage carries a municipal charge  — Rs 3 per square feet per day plus an additional Rs 200 as processing fees.

A charge will also be levied for putting up banners and hoardings near the pandals. If a block has more than 50 banners and 25 hoardings in the vicinity of the pandal then the puja committee is expected to pay Rs 5 per sq feet per day to the civic body for each banner or hoarding.

Temporary gates that welcome pandal-hoppers are chargeable too. If a gate is constructed on a metalled road then the charges have been set at Rs 1,609 per gate. If the gate is constructed on a non-metalled street then the charge would be Rs 1,370. 

All the charges are applicable for only the days of the festival — from Sashthi to Dashami — but not in the run-up to the Puja. The notice also emphasises that the charges have not been hiked from last year.

All organisers queuing up at the municipal clearance desk at the police stations are being asked to give a declaration on the number of commercial gates, banners and hoardings they plan to put up during the festival. The fees are calculated on that basis. The fee for the stage is being charged on the basis of the pandal plan submitted.

Look back in anger

Puja committees in Salt Lake are sour at having to pay for hoardings, banners and gates for the first time.
“We have never ever had to issue such declarations stating the number of banners and hoardings we will have in the 29 years our block has been organising Durga puja,” fumed Sudipto Mukherjee, a member of the IB Block puja committee. 

“Earlier we just needed to pay a fee to use the park in which the pandal and the stage for cultural programmes came up. These new charges will force us to calculate our budgets all over again,” said Ashim Mukherjee, the chairman of AC Block puja committee.

Abhijit Chandra, member of HB Block’s puja committee, agreed. “Till last year, we paid Rs 3,200 for the stage and the seating area and Rs 3,000 for erecting a pandal in HB Park. We also paid Rs 2,000 to the West Bengal Fire and Emergency Services. 

We did not pay anything more for hanging hoardings or erecting temporary gates,” Chandra said.

Money matters

According to senior officials at the civic body, the sole aim for resurrecting the rules is revenue generation.
“One must understand that puja organisers make money from all these banners, hoardings and gates. We are making these chargeable so that the corporation’s coffers are not ignored. If they can earn from these installations then why shouldn’t we? Moreover, these gates damage the streets as they are dug up to plant bamboo poles,” said a senior civic official. 

According to another official, raising a bill would curb such practices. “Most puja committees don’t care that they damage roads and even parks by digging innumerable holes. The charges will dissuade them from having too many gates and banners all around,” he said.

Flared tempers

A meeting was convened on September 4 by Pawan Kadyan, chairman, board of administrators, Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, to discuss the proposed charges with puja organisers. According to sources at Poura Bhavan, the meeting turned ugly with heated arguments from across the table.

Puja organisers from Rajarhat-Gopalpur areas flatly refused to toe the line. “There was so much shouting at the meeting that the chairman was forced to raise his voice asking everyone to calm down,” said a source, who was present at the meeting. The meeting ended in a fiasco as no consensus could be reached.

“Puja committee members from Rajarhat and adjoining areas managed to shout down everybody else and flatly refused to pay. The meeting was adjourned on this note,” the source said. 

Subsequently it was announced that charges would be levied for the gates and banners only on Puja days.  Moreover, puja committees in Rajarhat-Gopalpur would have to pay only Rs 500 as processing fee. 

Confusion after chaos

The civic body’s announcement has resulted in furrowed foreheads among puja organisers.

Ashok Das a member of AB Block puja committee was spotted trying to figure things out on Tuesday after completing the formalities at the Bidhannagar North police station where a single window counter had been opened for getting the puja permissions.

“For the first time, our block has paid for the gates. This has taken a massive toll on our budget as last year we had to pay Rs 9,000 for all the permissions including that from the fire department. This year we had to pay Rs 14,000, which is a Rs 5,000 hike,” lamented Bose.

“I think this is unjust. Why should we pay for constructing a stage when only our block members perform? It is not that we get to earn a lot of money by running ticketed shows during the pujas. Barring a few pujas, most Durga puja committees here operate on a small budget. The charges will take a definite toll on our finances as the funds we get from sponsors who pay for the banners, hoarding and gates form a big part of our budget,” said Uma Shankar Ghosh Dastidar, the secretary of the BJ Block puja committee. 

“It is also unfair that we have to pay for so many things while organisers in other parts of the corporation like Rajarhat are getting away by paying only a small processing fee,” complained Mukherjee of the IB Block puja committee.

Some unscrupulous organisers are planning to cock a snook at the new regulations by making false declarations regarding the number of their gates and hoardings. But Kadyan promises to stay vigilant. 
“We will send out teams from Mahalaya to check the number of hoardings, banners and gates. If it is found that the number of these installations is more than what the puja committee has declared then we will take action,” said Kadyan.

Are you confused about the puja fees? 
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