Delhi Govt To Stop Big Fat Indian Weddings, New Policy To Limit Your Guest-List!

A “big fat Indian wedding” may sound exciting but it comes at a huge cost, and I don’t just mean money-wise. Recently, the Rs. 200 Cr marriage of the sons of a South-African based businessman, Ajay and Atul Gupta, in Auli, Uttarakhand, sparked outrage after they left behind 4,000 kg of garbage. Though the Gupta family later went on to provide the expenses, labour, and vehicles for the massive cleanup, imagine the uncountable number of weddings each year across the country that leaves behind tonnes of garbage with no one to take responsibility for it.

However, the Delhi government has taken a step forward in curbing the wastage of food and water at weddings held in the city. According to sources, they have drafted a policy to curtail the number of social events in Delhi and also setting a limit to the number of guests invited for each event.

The Delhi government has formed a 4-member committee including Principal Secretary of Urban Development, Principal Secretary of Health, CEO of Delhi Jal Board, and Member Secretary of Delhi Pollution Control Committee. They have thereby created a policy draft regarding the issue in hand and it has allegedly already been approved by the Supreme Court appointed monitoring committee. The policy can be put into action as early as this month itself.

According to the draft, the maximum number of guests who can be invited for an event depends upon the size of the venue. The number will be obtained by dividing sq. metre area of the venue by 1.5, or multiply the total number of cars that can be parked by 4.

Procession of horse-drawn carriage and band will not be allowed outside the venue. There will be no firearms and the music should be within the noise pollution limit.

It should be made sure that food does not go to waste. Leftover food must be distributed to the underprivileged via NGOs.

The policy also states that if any venue operators (not the host) fails to abide by these rules, they will be subjected to a heavy penalty – Rs. 5 lakhs penalty for the first offence, Rs. 10 lakhs for the second, Rs. 15 lakhs for the third, and so on. A third offence will also call for license cancellation after a buffer period of 30 days. Hosting an event at an unauthorised venue comes with a penalty of Rs. 15 lakhs along with sealing of the premises.

We hope this puts an end to the surplus amounts of food and water that goes to waste!