Alappuzha: Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan has said that there should be a limit on marriage expenses to control ostentatious weddings. Although the previous UDF government had planned a Bill for the purpose, it had reached nowhere, he told Deccan Chronicle here on Thursday. “I used to demand in the Assembly in the past also a limit on the wedding expenses. I hope the present government will take up the matter and pass legislation for it,” he said.
Those who cross the prescribed limit on the expenses should be fined. The fine can be utilised for the wedding expense of poor girls, he added. The State Women’s Commission has proposed regulations insisting that there should be only one function for the marriage, the number of guests should be 200, invitation card should cost only Rs 25 each, auditorium rent should be less than '. 25,000, decorations should cost only Rs 5000, bride’s gold should be only 120 grams, bridal wear should cost only Rs 10, 000 and bridegroom’s wear less than Rs 5,000.
The total expenses for the wedding party should be limited to Rs 6 lakh, the commission said. But the previous government sat on the suggestions. According to Ms K.C. Rosakutty, chairperson, Women's Commission, the commission proposed the regulations as marriage expenses were becoming astronomical hitting the economically backward parents. A study by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad in 2006 had found that the people were spending about 15 per cent of the family income for weddings.
