Author: From Our Correspondent
Publication: Organiser
Date: February 1, 2004
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=1&page=6
Introduction: WB Government imposes
high tax on Gangasagar pilgrims and Hindu Seva Samitis
The Left Government in West Bengal
has imposed an all-time high tax on voluntary social organisations (VSOs)
this year for using its land at the Gangasagar Mela ground for distributing
food, offering free shelter and medicine to several lakhs of Hindu pilgrims
who assembled on the auspicious Makar Sankranti day to take a holy dip
at the confluence of the river Ganga and the Bay of Bengal. The State Government
has also sharply increased fares of buses and motor launches taking pilgrims
from Kolkata to Sagar Island. The enhanced tax and increased fares on Hindu
pilgrims are similar to the hated jizya (pilgrimage tax on Hindus) reintroduced
by Aurangzeb to draw a communal divide between the Hindus and the Muslims.
In protest against the anti-Hindu
religion taxation policy of the CPI(M)-led government, the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad and several other voluntary social organisations have jointly
opposed the State Government´s decision as it encroached upon religious
freedom of the people. The public outcry followed by the voluntary social
organisations´ threat to boycott the Gangasagar Mela this year forced
the State Government to reduce its high rental charges levied on VSOs for
the construction of temporary shelters and gruel kitchens for Hindu pilgrims
at Babughat on the bank of the Ganga in Kolkata as well as at the Sagar
Island. Earlier, the State Government in a circular demanded Rs. 8 per
sq. ft. of land used by the VSOs against Rs. 4 last year. Now the State
Government compromised and reduced the rental charges from Rs. 8 to Rs.
6 per sq.ft. However, enhanced bus and launch fares remained unchanged.
Gangasagar pilgrims had to pay double fare for single journey from Kolkata
to Sagar this year. The Government´s contention is that fares for
buses are doubled as the vehicles return empty after leaving the pilgrims
at Namkhana, the gateway to Sagar.
South Bengal general secretary of
the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Ajay Nandi, in a statement said that while voluntary
social orgnaisations accepted reluctantly the reduced rental charge of
Rs 6 per sq ft for using Government land, they would never accept the enhanced
fares imposed on Sagar pilgrims for travelling to Gangasagar. The VHP´s
South Bengal general Secretary said that his organisation would organise
strong protest agitations against the State Government´s unilateral
decision to collect high travelling fares from Sagar pilgrims. "This is
a clear case of religious discrimination. Pilgrims to Muslim shrine at
Phurphura Sharif in Hooghly district and other places in West Bengal have
never been subjected to any religious tax so far. Why have only the Hindu
pilgrims visiting Sagar Tirtha to pay high pilgrimage tax to the Government
every year?" Nandi asked.
Several lakhs of Hindu pilgrims
come from different parts of the country and overseas to take a holy dip
in Gangasagar on Makar Sankranti every year. They are taken care of by
voluntary orgnaisations that arrange their stay, food and medical services
free of charge. The Government of West Bengal allots land to the voluntary
organisations to set up their camps for extending free social services
to the pilgrims. Before the communists took over the reins of the Government
in West Bengal, the land at Gangasagar was allotted to voluntary organisations
free of cost. After assuming power in the State in 1977, the Left Front
Government first imposed a nominal charge of 25 paisa per sq ft of land
occupied temporarily by voluntary social organisations. Last year, the
Government had unilaterally hiked the charge to Rs 4 per sq.ft.
This year, the State Government
has hiked the charge from Rs 4 to Rs 6. Moreover, all voluntary orgnaisations
were asked to pay enhanced rates for the supply of drinking water to pilgrims
by them. In fact, shelter, food and drinking water provided by voluntary
orgaisations at the Gangasagar Mela are the responsibility of the State
Government. This was acknowledged by the former district magistrate of
South 24 Parganas, Alapan Bandopadhyaya, who was the in-charge of organising
the Mela till 2003. Profusely thanking voluntary organisations for extending
free services to over 3 lakh pilgrims assembled at the Gangasagar last
year, he said, "It would have been simply impossible for the Government
administration to manage the whole show without the help from voluntary
organisations. We could pay microscopic attention to the pilgrims´
need only because these voluntary organisations gave us such phenomenal
support."
The seventy-odd registered voluntary
social organisations that set up makeshift offices on the Gangasagar beach
includes wellknown names like the Bharat Sevashram Sangh, Vishwa Hindu
Parishad, Ramakrishna Mission, Gouriya Math, Marwari Relief Society, Kashi
Vishwanath Seva Samiti, and Anandamoyee Seva Samiti.
Volunteers of the VHP and Bharat
Sevashram Sangh (BSS) not only feed several lakhs of pilgrims daily, they
also look after the safety of the pilgrims taking a holy dip. The VHP and
the BSS volunteers stand guard in waist deep ice- cold water early in the
morning for hours together along the beach to save the lives of pilgrims
from drowning till the religious bathing is over at Gangasagar.
In exchange of their great services,
the Communist Government has slapped high tax on voluntary social organisations
for helping Hindu pilgrims. Is it not an encroachment on the religious
freedom guaranteed by the Indian Constitution? Is it not a religious discrimination
when the people belonging to other religious faiths are not asked to pay
any pilgrimage tax? The only way to preserve religious freedom and equality
is to declare the Gangasagar Mela a National Festival by the Centre.
