Highway liquor ban leaves big, fat Punjabi weddings high and dry
does road safety have to do with the big, fat Punjabi wedding?
A lot, as the recent Supreme Court order banning serving of liquor within 500 metres of highways to clamp down on drunk driving has literally left marriage palaces in Punjab high and dry.
The scale of Punjabi weddings is grand enough to require venues that resemble palaces.
Located along highways on the outskirts of cities across the state, the focus at the wedding celebrations is on drinking, dining and dancing. Marriage palace owners say bookings are drying up, affecting business at 70% at such venues.
Rajeev Chhabra of AKM Resorts in Zirakpur on the Chandigarh-Patiala highway says an estimated 2,500 of the 3,500 marriage palaces in Punjab are located within 500 metres of a state or national highway. “At least 70% of marriage palaces in Punjab have been affected by the court order. Those who have wedding functions planned have put bookings at these venues on hold. We have no bookings after May,” says Chhabra. It doesn’t help that he went in for a glitzy makeover of the venue. “
Customers are making frantic enquiries at different places for arrangements. Serving liquor to guests is the major concern,” he says. Punjab additional excise and taxation commissioner Gurtej Singh says business in 27 star hotels and 269 bars and pubs across the state has suffered due to the ban on serving liquor near highways. “We have counted 1,000 marriage palaces where business has been affected. The number of such wedding venues is rising by the day as more and more owners are getting in touch with us,” he says.
The excise department used to earn ₹800 crore to ₹900 crore annually from the sale of liquor in bars, hotels and marriage palaces. “The department will lose out on this earning this year,” he says.
successor to Dharamshala-based 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso will be chosen in the traditional way by drawing lots from a sacred urn at the Jokhang monastery in Lhasa, followed by the mandatory approval from the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), Beijing has said.
When the time comes, the succession rules will follow Buddhist religious rituals to be performed at the Jokhang temple and regulations set by CPC, ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) told HT in a written response.
“The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama must be conducted according to religious rituals and historical conventions, including drawing lots from the Golden Urn in front of the Shakyamuni (Buddha) statue at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, which embodies the Buddhist spirit,” the MFA said, adding: “(and) not by what the 14th Dalai Lama has said”.
The primary rules of naming the successor will follow the “Regulation on Religious Affairs and Management Rules of Tibetan Buddhism Reincarnation,”
BUSINESS IN 27 STAR HOTELS AND 269 BARS AND PUBS
HAS SUFFERED