Is West Bengal Govt collecting Jizya tax from Hindu pilgrims visiting Tarakeshwar Ganga? Fact Check

Claim: The West Bengal Government is collecting taxes from Hindu pilgrims visiting the Tarakeshwar Ganga during the month of Sawan.

Conclusion: Misleading. The Government of West Bengal is not collecting any taxes and Rs.10 was collected by the local organizations for maintenance.

Rating: Misleading —

***********************************************

Several users took to social media and shared videos of Hindu pilgrims who were allegedly taxed while visiting the Ganga ghats. The claim was supported by a video showing a man holding a ticket and sarcastically remarking that he had to pay ₹10 to bathe in the Ganga.

Verified X user ‘HinduVoice_in’ shared such a claim with the caption :” #WestBengal. The Government is charging ₹10 for each devotee to bathe in Ganga river before going to Tarakeswar Shiva temple. The money is being taken from lacs of devotees to enter the ghat of the Ganga river.” Find the tweet here

#WestBengal

The Government is charging ₹10 for each devotee to bathe in Ganga river before going to Tarakeswar Shiva temple.

The money is being taken from lacs of devotees to enter the ghat of the Ganga river. pic.twitter.com/m8wXM3OWGT

— Hindu Voice (@HinduVoice_in) August 4, 2025

Another verified X user claims that Jizya tax was being imposed upon the Hindus of West Bengal. Her post gained more than 20,000 views and nearly 2,2000 likes. Find the tweet here.

Jizya tax being imposed upon Hindus in West Bengal??
Mamata Banerjee Govt is collecting Rs 10 from punyarthis who are taking holy dip in Ganga ahead of their Tarakeshwar visit !! pic.twitter.com/yrqQsziffM

— Keya Ghosh (@keyakahe) August 4, 2025

The Union Minister of State for Education and former BJP state president of West Bengal, Sukanta Majumder also made this claim. He lashed at the TMC government for forcibly collecting such fees during religious practices and termed them anti-Hindu. Find the tweet here

পবিত্র গঙ্গাস্নানেও হিন্দু বিরোধী তৃণমূল সরকারের জুলুমবাজি!

বৈদ্যবাটী নিমাই তীর্থ ঘাট থেকে তারকেশ্বর ধামের উদ্দেশ্যে যাত্রারত শিবভক্ত পুণ্যার্থীদের থেকে জনপ্রতি ১০ টাকা করে “ফি” আদায় করছে পশ্চিমবঙ্গ সরকার!

হিন্দুদের ধর্মীয় আচারে এমন জোরপূর্বক অর্থ আদায় মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়… pic.twitter.com/abh2NgKHQt

— Dr. Sukanta Majumdar (@DrSukantaBJP) August 4, 2025
The english translation reads: “Even the sacred Ganges bath is not spared from the oppression of the anti-Hindu Trinamool government! The West Bengal government is collecting a “fee” of 10 rupees per person from the Shiva devotees and pilgrims traveling from Baidyabati Nimai Tirtha Ghat to Tarakeswar Dham! Such forcible collection of money during the religious practices of Hindus is nothing but a blatant display of the anti-religious and fundamentalist mindset of the Mamata Banerjee government. Is this merely an excuse for collecting money, or is it a silent message to Bengali Hindus that, from now on, practicing their religion in West Bengal will also be subject to tax collection?”

FACT CHECK

DigitEYE India decided to fact check this claim and watched the video thoroughly. Upon closely analysing the tickets held by the person, there was no logo or emblem of the Government of West Bengal.

The ticket says : উন্নয়ন পরিষেবা দশ টাকা in Bengali meaning ‘Development Service 10 Taka’. By no means was this any “tax”, let alone claims of Aurangzeb-era Jizya tax being imposed on the Hindus. The Government of West Bengal or any municipality was not involved in this either.

We then conducted a reverse image search alongside a keyword search to find evidence of such fees on pilgrims visiting the Baidyabadi Nimai Tritha Ghat. Our search took us to this official post by the West Bengal Police made on 4 August 2025.

The post in Bengali read : বৈদ্যবাটী নিমাই তীর্থ ঘাট থেকে পবিত্র গঙ্গা জল নেওয়ার জন্য পুণ্যার্থীদের কাছে থেকে পশ্চিমবঙ্গ সরকার কোন  “ফি” আদায় করছে না।. Translated to English, it reads: “The West Bengal government is not collecting any “fee” from pilgrims for taking holy Ganga water from the Baidyabati Nimai Tirtha Ghat.” 

Find the tweet here.

বৈদ্যবাটী নিমাই তীর্থ ঘাট থেকে পবিত্র গঙ্গা জল নেওয়ার জন্য পুণ্যার্থীদের কাছে থেকে পশ্চিমবঙ্গ সরকার কোন “ফি” আদায় করছে না। pic.twitter.com/tdpXH5V353

— West Bengal Police (@WBPolice) August 4, 2025

During our investigation, we came across an article by The Statesman which discussed Sukanta Majumder’s accusations on the West Bengal Government. The local volunteers told them that “a small fee is sometimes collected at ghats for sanitation and crowd management, especially during large-scale religious events.” 

Additionally, the article also accounted for how these were not “mandated by the state”. View a snippet from the article below – 

Thus, there is no proof of any tax collection from Hindus. The claim that the West Bengal Government is collecting taxes from Hindu pilgrims visiting the Tarakeshwar Ganga during the month of Sawan is false.