JAIPUR: The first day of the year’s last wedding season amid the absence of clarity in the revised guidelines for marriages led to utter confusion among wedding parties in the state. Sources said families kept running from local police station to the collectorate seeking clarifications on organising processions and late-night movements especially in the eight districts having night curfew.
Officials said chaos and confusion among wedding parties prevailed till late in the night sparked by the sense of fear instilled by the guidelines. Senior officials had to direct the officers in the field to treat marriage parties kindness and respect.
Jaipur district collector Antar Singh Nehra said there were over 3,000 marriages in the city making it an impossible task for his teams to reach out to all venues. “I gave my teams the target of checking at least five venues and issued directions they should be courteous with those following the guidelines. But, if anybody misbehaves with them, they should immediately issue a challan. Also, if there are more than required number of guests anywhere, they must issue a challan,” he said.
Till last report came in, the local administration had not compiled a list of violations in the city and inspections were going on.
The local administrations in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur known for destination weddings faced the challenge of inspecting these marriages which either happened on the outskirts or within a portion of the hotel.
Om Prakash Bunkar, additional district collector of Udaipur, said they were aware of such weddings and had deputed tehsildars and BDOs to keep a watch on them along with local police. “So far, no one has been caught violating the protocols. Our preparation on the first day will set the tone for the entire wedding season or till the rules are in force,” he said.
Over 800 marriages were solemnised in Ajmer amid counselling and appeals by the district administration. Police kept extra check since the city was registering a heavy patient load of 200 and several infection cases.
District collector Prakash Rajpurohit along with officials Devika Tomar, Vishal Dave and Avdesh Meena were on the field counselling wedding parties.