Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan endorses law to limit swanky weddings

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.