Ludhiana Marriage Palace Welfare Association says marriage palace industry on verge of closure

Ludhiana: The office-bearers of Ludhiana Marriage Palace Welfare Association have once again requested the Punjab Government to make every effort to save this industry, otherwise the day is not far when this industry will be completely shut down. 

Talking to reporters here today, the president of the association Amarjit Singh (Sant) and spokesperson Vikas Srivastava further said that if the problems of this industry are not considered by taking appropriate steps immediately, it will not only cause huge damage to the owners of the marriage palace. Rather, the revenue of the state will also be severely damaged and a large number of people will get unemployed.

He said that in view of the corona epidemic, the state government has reduced the number of people gathering in marriage ceremonies from 200 to 20, which is not justified in any way. Whereas in neighbouring states this number is much more. Giving an example, he said that 200 people and 500 people can gather in the hall and the lawn, respectively, of any marriage palace in Haryana.

He further informed that considerable relaxation has also been given in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir. Because of this, people are cancelling their programs in Punjab and performing marriage ceremonies in neighbouring states. He told that most of the marriage ceremonies are held in April and May. If no action is taken soon, the entire business is likely to shift to neighbouring states. After this, the next season of marriages will come after four months.

He said that due to the epidemic, the same thing happened in these two months last year as well. However, in November and December of last year, the State Government had given exemption to marriage palaces under which gathering of 100 people inside hall and 200 people in the lawn was allowed, which provided a relief. But now again this exemption has been withdrawn and 20 people gathering is being allowed, which cannot be justified in any way.

They said that they feel that their voice is not reaching the Chief Minister, although they have already sent their memorandum to the CM office. Even this issue has been raised in front of many ministers and legislators of the government. They said that if factories, cinema halls, malls etc. can be opened, even political parties can hold rallies then why can't marriage palace open with half its capacity.

He said that there are about 130 marriage palaces in Ludhiana district and the livelihood of about 250 people runs from one marriage palace. What will happen to their future if marriage palace does not open even with half its capacity? In this way, the owners of the marriage palaces will find it difficult to retain their staff as they may move to neighbouring states for employment.
Apart from this, the owners of the marriage palace are not being given any other facility by the state government. Despite not earning income in the present scenario, they have to pay the entire property tax, electricity expenses, employee salaries etc. whereas the reality is that the marriage palace owners have always followed all the guidelines issued by the government.

On this occasion, Vice President of the Association Inderjit Singh Khurana, General Secretary Rajneesh Kalra, Joint Secretary Krishna Thakur, Finance Secretary Pankaj Gupta, Legal Advisor - Spokesperson Gurpreet Singh Malhi, Patron Sukhdarshan Jain (Bhola Ji), Rajwant Singh Grewal, Chaman Lal Tangri, Senior Advisor Jitender Dhiman and Chairman Manjinder Singh and Siddharth Gupta and Krishna Thakur were also present.