Uttar Pradesh govt solemnised 1,300 Muslim weddings

LUCKNOW: As part of its outreach among Muslims, the Yogi Adityanath government has ensured marriages of over 1,300 couples from the minority community across the state in this financial year thus far. These weddings have been performed under the chief minister group marriage scheme that was launched a few years ago.
Earlier, these marriages were solemnised by different departments, including minorities welfare; however, from now on, the social welfare department has been made the nodal agency for these group marriages and budgets from all the departments have shifted to it.
Officials told TOI that Rs 600 crore have been earmarked for group marriages throughout the state in this fiscal, of which the department has spent Rs 81.76 crore until August.
From April to August this year, the department has been able to host group marriages of around 16,033 couples. Of which, 1387 couples from minority community, 9,374 couples from the Dalit community, 4,649 couples from the OBC category and 623 couples from general category got married.
Of these, Moradabad division had the lion's share of 1,567 weddings, followed by Varanasi (1,409), Lucknow (1,274), Kanpur (1,035), Ayodhya (1,014), Meerut (962), Prayagraj (934), Gorakhpur (933) and Bareilly (871).
Principal secretary, social welfare department, Hari Om said that efforts would be made to ensure maximum marriages are solemnised in the coming wedding season as applications in huge numbers have already been received.
As part of the scheme, the government provides Rs 51,000 to the bride when the marriage is performed. Of the total amount given, Rs 35,000 is transferred into the bride's account while utility items are gifted to the bride from the leftover amount. No money is transferred to the groom, the officials further said. Couples from below poverty line, from any caste or religion, can avail the scheme.