Fresh Restrictions Applied On Weddings; Cases Filed Against Covid Norm Violators

EE News Desk Apr 27, 2021

Just when Covid cases seemed to have come down earlier this year and the wedding industry was starting to feel optimistic, the country is witnessing another surge in cases and fresh restrictions by the authorities. Weddings have become smaller and fewer, and the never-ending ceremonies and long guest lists got trimmed. These small, intimate celebrations and virtual weddings found takers. However, several weddings are being postponed in the wake of the fresh surge in Covid-19 cases. Families who are still going ahead with the pre-scheduled weddings are scaling down on the festivities.

Haryana’s chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, during a press conference recently, said that people can defer their programmes. But people raised objection as they said weddings are not fixed in a week and their preparations begin more than a month before.

The new restrictions have increased worries for people who cannot defer the marriages and are now making rounds to offices of the district administrations for permissions.

As per authorities at the Karnal SDM office, over 150 applications seeking permission for marriages have been received since the restrictions were imposed.

Karnal SDM Ayush Sinha said as per guidelines, permissions are only being granted for a day’s function. Duty magistrate and local police will visit the venue on the wedding day to ensure that Covid guidelines are followed and strict action is taken against violators as per law.

A statement released by the office of Gujarat Director General of Police (DGP) Ashish Bhatia on Monday said, “To ensure that wedding ceremonies don’t result in an increase in spread of Covid infection, the state government has issued guidelines with a cap of maximum 50 guests… The DGP Gujarat had issued strict instructions to the police force to ensure that Covid guidelines issued by the government were being followed at weddings. In that regard, police has taken strict action across the state wherever guidelines were being violated.”

“The state government had made it compulsory to register at the government portal for marriages in advance and using database from the portal, police teams visited 3,244 wedding ceremonies across the state on April 25 in which 146 cases of mask violation and 61 cases of Covid related guidelines violations were registered. A total of 78 persons were also arrested in these cases,” the statement added.

According to a report, from December 19, 2020, to April 25, 2021, a total of 17,571 weddings were checked and 727 cases were registered for mask violation and 149 cases were for violation of other Covid guidelines. A total of 254 persons were arrested.

Since April and May have quite a few auspicious dates, many weddings that had been planned during this period have been affected. While wedding planners and platforms are trying to help clients modify their bookings as per need, it’s most important for couples to make safety a priority. Prudent couples are resorting to postponing weddings, downsizing them, or making them virtual events.

Moreover, the restrictions, especially night curfew, has cost the owners of marriage palaces heavily as they most marriages were fixed for night and have now been cancelled or shifted to villages due to fresh guidelines and night curfew.