Kolkata, Aug 24 (IANS): After an association of lawyers on Wednesday morning filed a public interest litigation in the Calcutta High Court against the proposal for funds to community Durga Pujas, an individual filed another PIL on the same issue in the afternoon.

The second petition on the same issue at the same division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bhardwaj was filed by Subir Kumar Ghosh.

In his petition, Ghosh has raised certain specific questions on the justification of the proposed payment of Rs 60,000 to each of the 43,000 registered community Puja committees. The first question was on the justification of the dole scheme in a situation where the state government is unable to pay the dearness allowance arrears to the state government employees, honouring an order of the Calcutta High Court on this count.

The petition also questioned what the public interest will this dole serve in a situation where many are deprived of the basic necessities of life namely food, drinking water, medicines, electricity and education.

In the PIL, the petitioners have made a plea to the court to direct the state government to immediately announce the withdrawal of the dole scheme.

The division bench has admitted both the petitions.