- By Priyanka Koul
- Mon, 18 May 2026 07:45 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
The West Bengal government led by Suvendu Adhikari announced several key decisions during the first meeting of the state cabinet held on Monday. Among the most significant were the discontinuation of government assistance schemes based on religious categorisation from June and the scrapping of the state's existing list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) following a Calcutta High Court order.
"The cabinet has approved the discontinuation of schemes based on religious categorisation. A notification on this will be issued," Women, Child and Social Welfare Minister Agnimitra Paul said, indicating that the existing state budgetary allocations for such schemes could be withdrawn.
The Bengal cabinet decided that assistance-oriented schemes for imams, muezzins and purohits, which were being implemented on the basis of religious categorisation, would be discontinued from June this year.
The honorariums, provided through the departments of Information and Cultural Affairs and Minority Affairs and Madrasa Education, were introduced to support the socio-economic standing of religious leaders, according to a notification issued by the erstwhile Trinamool Congress-led government.
Schemes currently being implemented under religious categorisation by the departments of Information and Cultural Affairs and Minority Affairs and Madrasa Education will continue till the end of this month and will be stopped from June, Paul added. Separate notifications in this regard will be issued.
The decision marks a major policy shift, with the state government maintaining that welfare programmes should not be based on religious identity.
Previously, the Trinamool Congress government had announced monthly honorariums for imams, muezzins and temple priests a year after coming to power in the state.
In March this year, the former Mamata Banerjee government approved a Rs 500 hike in the honorarium for religious leaders. Following the revision, imams of registered mosques in Bengal were granted a monthly stipend of Rs 3,000, while muezzins and purohits received Rs 2,000.
The first of these schemes was introduced in 2012, when the government announced a monthly honorarium for imams across West Bengal. Under the scheme, registered imams received Rs 2,500 per month to support religious leaders from economically weaker sections.
Soon after, a similar financial assistance programme was extended to muezzins, who call worshippers to prayer in mosques. Both these funds were disbursed through the Minority Welfare Department.
In 2020, the then state government introduced a similar allowance for Hindu priests, or purohits. The move was widely seen as an attempt to counter criticism that only Muslim religious leaders were receiving state support.
Under this scheme, registered purohits received a monthly honorarium initially fixed at around Rs 1,000, which was later revised to Rs 2,000 ahead of the 2026 Vidhan Sabha polls.