Nothing austeres about this mass marriage

TNN
Bellevision Media Network

Mangalore, 05 August 2010: Till now, mass marriages have been austere affairs. The prime examples have been marriages conducted by Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala, Society of St Vincent De-Paul (SVP) at Rosario cathedral among others. The cost incurred at these simple marriages has been less than Rs 15,000 per couple, including food for the invitees.

 

Not any more. The All Religion mass marriage to be held at Bellare, Sullia taluk, is all set to create a record with a total spend in excess of Rs 1 crore. Each couple participating in the marriage will get eight sovereigns of gold jewellery, Rs 26,000 in cash, wedding dress, plus food for 50 invitees! A simple calculation puts the cost incurred per couple at Rs 1.5 lakh.

 

 

Sponsors of the mass marriage said that it was to help downtrodden youth irrespective of religion, caste or creed, to fulfill their dream of getting married. Already 30 couples have registered. Each couple will take vows according to their religious practices and helping them will be Mangalore Khazi Shaikuna Thwaka Ahamed Musliyar, Sri Dharmapalanath seer from Adi Chunchanagiri Mutt and Fr Santosh DSouza from Panja.

 

The guest and invitees for the function are expected to cross 20,000. The guest list includes the who’s who-former CM H D Kumaraswamy, Union minister of state for home affairs Mullappally Ramachandran, home minister V S Acharya, Congress leader Janardhan Poojary, legislative council deputy chairperson Puttanna.