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CM’s appeal for putting off weddings has few takers
ARA /PATNA Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s appeal to defer marriages to prevent spread of the coronavirus in the midst of lockdown seems to be having few takers, especially in semi-urban areas
ARA /PATNA
Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s appeal to defer marriages to prevent spread of the coronavirus in the midst of lockdown seems to be having few takers, especially in semi-urban areas.
In Bhojpur district, 1,600 applications have been submitted till Friday afternoon in different police stations of the district regarding information about marriages.
The state government, while announcing the lockdown, had made it mandatory for people to inform their respective police stations three days in advance if they wished to hold marriage ceremonies. The state had capped the number of wedding guests at 50. Though curfew timings has been relaxed till 10 pm for marriages,orchestras and processions have been prohibited altogether.
However, a day after announcing the lockdown, the CM had appealed to people to defer marriages “if they can.”
Bihar has enforced lockdown from May 5 till May 15 following an unprecedented surge in Covid cases.
Many a family expressed their helplessness. “My son’s marriage was fixed last year but was deferred due to the pandemic. Now that the pandemic has returned this year, we decided that the marriage ceremony will be held with fewer people,” said Chatthu Prasad of Ganauli whose son’s “tilak” ceremony is on May 14. He has submitted his application in the police station concerned.
In Purnia district, 161 applications have been submitted, giving information about marriages.
District officials in East and West Chamapran pleaded ignorance about the number of wedding scheduled during the lockdown and said only the in-charges of police stations could tell.
“We have already received around 20 applications for weddings,” said Rohit, station house officer (SHO), Mufassil police station, Motihari.
Ugranath Jha, SHO, Mufassil police station, Bettiah, put the number of applications at two to three in the areas within his jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Kumar, subdivisional police officer of Chakiya in East Champaran, said one person had been arrested and two firearms seized in connection with celebratory firing at a wedding, a video of which had gone viral on social media.
In Patna, however, there is a rush to cancel weddings. “There were a number of auspicious dates between May 5 and 15, but most of the bookings have been cancelled,” said a marriage hall employee, wishing anonymity.
Kumud Sharma, the manager of the luxury Panache hotel in Patna, told PTI that almost 90 per of the advance bookings for weddings have been postponed.
“A few people, for whom shifting the date was unavoidable, are going ahead with a simple wedding. Only a handful of guests will be present and there would be no band- baajaa-baaraat,” he said.
The situation has left decorators and ‘band parties’ or orchestra groups staring at losses.
“We had four-five bookings per day during this period but all of them have been cancelled,” said Mohd Tajuddin, the proprietor of the famous Patna Bachcha Band.
(With inputs from PTI)
