Chandigarh, March 31 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the Punjab government's Mukh Mantri Tirth Yatra scheme, launched in November 2023. The bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Ramesh Kumari, however, observed, "It would have been better if the Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra Scheme was only available for persons who can't afford the cost of tirath yatra." The PIL by Hoshiarpur resident Parvinder Singh Kittna had questioned the government's move, terming it a "wastage" of tax payers' money, adding that it would not result in any development or welfare. In the launch year, 13 trains ran for a period of 13 weeks, each carrying 1,000 devotees to various religious places in the country. Besides, 10 buses, with a capacity of 43 passengers, ferried devotees to religious places within the state every day. The petition had claimed that Rs.40 crore was spent on the scheme over a period of 13 weeks in 2023-24, with the government targeting to reach 50,000 beneficiaries. The plea further claimed that while dealing with petitions related to the Centre's Haj pilgrimage subsidy scheme, the Supreme Court of India had directed it to progressively reduce the amount of subsidy and completely eliminate the scheme within 10 years so that the subsidy money may be more profitably used for the upliftment of the community in education and other areas of social development. It was claimed before the court that the scheme was launched for wooing voters ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections. On the other hand, the state's counsel had claimed that similar schemes are being offered by various other state governments as well. The benefit can be availed only once and there are other checks in place to mitigate chances of any kind of fraud, the state's counsel stated, adding that a policy decision of this kind fell in the domain of the government and it is competent to launch such a scheme. It further added that the scheme was to facilitate all residents of Punjab and prior nod was taken from planning department and department of finance before it was finally okayed by the state cabinet, the highest decision making body in policy matters. "The scheme so formulated is secular and for the benefit of all residents of the state, irrespective of their religion, caste colour and creed etc.," the government affidavit in court said, adding the PIL on this issue was not maintainable as the scheme was "inclusive" and government can only be faulted on the touchstone of being discriminatory and being against the fundamental rights of the citizens. The court declined to interfere with the government decision terming the scheme a policy matter that fell in the domain of the government but added that the petitioner can submit all his objections/grievances to the state government....