Delhi wedding venue owners seek Covid curb relaxations
NEW DELHI: As the wedding season begins, associations of banquet halls and tent houses have written to the Delhi government seeking relaxation in the restrictions on social gatherings in the national capital, as they feel the current ban on such events and uncertainty over future norms has led to cancellation of events planned in February. A government spokesperson said the restrictions will be eased
“as and when the situation improves”.
Amid a spike in Covid-19 cases, the Delhi government ordered banquet halls to shut last month. As per the Delhi Disaster Management Authority’s order, only 20 people are allowed at wedding functions.
Noting that neighbouring states don’t have such stringent norms, the associations requested the Delhi government to allow them to operate at 50% capacity or cap the number of guests at around 50-100.
Ramesh Dang, member of Delhi Wedding Forum (formed post-Covid), said, “Other states have allowed a gathering of 50-250 people. We are losing business to neighbouring states as people are cancelling events here due to the restriction and moving to Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad etc, where the norms are much relaxed. We have written to the government to allow at least 50-100 people or 50% of the venue capacity.”
Dang added, “Our industry has suffered a lot in the past two years due to the Covid pandemic. We have somehow managed to stay afloat as there were strict restrictions imposed on social gatherings in the past two years. If the ban is not lifted, it will impact lakhs of people associated with the industry.”
The wedding season has just started after Makar Sankranti and will continue till mid-March. But due to uncertainty over the current ban on social gathering, tent houses and hotel owners say that they have started getting cancellation requests. In the past one week, Pankaj Shokeen, owner of a tent house in west Delhi and general secretary of Delhi Tent Federation, said that he has got 11 cancellation requests for wedding functions planned in February.