Funding crunch dims lights at Puja Pandals

Pandals are coming up all across Kolkata, but behind the scaffolding. Puja committees are facing a stark new reality: Funds that usually fuel Bengal’s biggest festival have dried up. A transition in State governance has triggered an unintended financial crisis for Kolkata’s Durga Pujas, leaving small organisers worried and corporate sponsors backing away.

A late decision by the government on the operating procedures for putting up advertisement hoardings this festival season is being blamed for the funds crisis. According to ‘Forum for Durgotsab’, a leading organisation of community Durga Pujas in Kolkata, overall corporate spending has seen a drastic cut of 30-40 per cent this year compared to last year, significantly impacting the budget of puja organisers.

“Late decisions from the administration is one of the major factors that led to the major drop in corporate sponsorship. Puja committees need sufficient time to erect advertisement hoardings and banners, companies also want these to be displayed for a longer time in the festival season. Puja organisers and companies had been waiting for the guidelines, which came much later,” Partha Ghosh, Chairman, Forum for Durgotsab, told businessline.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has limited the period when hoardings can be displayed to just seven days before Mahalaya and seven days after Bijaya Dashami. During the erstwhile Trinamool Congress government, there were no such guidelines.

“Community pujas are witnessing stress in corporate sponsorship as well. For big and medium community pujas, around 70 per cent of the budgets comes from corporate sponsorship. Due to shrinking sponsorship, we are postponing payments to decorators,” said Saswata Basu, vice-president, Forum for Durgotsab and secretary of Hatibagan Sarbojanin Durgotsav Committee.

Notably, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari last month urged big budget community Durga Pujas to voluntarily forgo financial aid from the government, while announcing a grant of ₹1 lakh for Durga Puja committees that applied for the aid.

Until last year, the previous Trinamool Congress government provided ₹1.10 lakh to each police-approved puja committee in the State. The grant, introduced in 2018, was raised to ₹50,000 per committee during the Covid-19 pandemic times to support puja organisers facing financial difficulties during the lockdown. It was subsequently increased in phases to ₹1.10 lakh in 2025.

This year, several eligible puja committees have not been able to apply for aid as the application system was changed.

“For providing financial support to community puja organisers, the new government has adopted an entirely new application system, which is more centralised. Earlier, local police stations helped puja organisers with the application process. This year many small puja committees could not apply because they did not get this support,” said Kajal Sarkar, committee president, Bosepukur Sitala Mandir, a crowd-puller and big-ticket Durga Puja in south Kolkata.

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