New Delhi:
The restrictions announced by the Delhi government, including issuing passes to those attending marriages, amid a surge in COVID-19 cases evoked a mixed response from wedding planners and to-be married couples, with some saying their job will become “trickier”.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced sweeping restrictions, including a weekend curfew and the closure of malls, gymnasiums, spas and auditoriums, in a bid to break the chain of the COVID-19 infection in the national capital.
The city government said essential services and weddings will not be affected by the weekend curfew and passes will be provided to those attending weddings.
The government”s curbs come after the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on April 10 ordered the prohibition of all types of gatherings, a maximum of 50 people at weddings and 20 at funerals, running of public transport at half of their seating capacity and a scaled down presence in government offices.
Wedding planners and hotel owners said with the restrictions and guidelines in place, their jobs have become “trickier”.
Shakti Singh of Madam Planners said a cap of 50 people, which included the staff and the guests, was already a difficult situation to begin with.
“We don”t think e-passes are the best solution to it, unless they are being managed on priority and at the micro-level.
“As wedding planners, our job only gets trickier to keep everyone safe and sound and follow government guidelines without anyone being hassled,” Singh told a news agency.
The city has been witnessing an unprecedented increase in coronavirus cases and with over 17,000 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday it became the worst-affected city in the country, leaving financial capital Mumbai far behind in the daily tally.
Welcoming the government”s decision as “the need of the hour”, Delhi-based media personnel Sneha Arya said she is struggling to get her guests curfew passes for her wedding on Saturday.
“Since we had already restricted our guest list to 50 people, it wasn”t such a hassle. And as far the e-pass is concerned, I have been trying to access the website but it doesn”t seem to be working for now,” Arya said.
Pawan Chawla of Triple Tree Hotel in Karol Bagh said the restriction on the number of guests will further affect the already struggling industry.
“With the pandemic the wedding industry has been among the worst affected. There are so many people connected to planning one wedding including catering, decor, hotel, banqueting etc. It is not viable for these people to arrange a wedding for 50 people. We are incurring huge losses,” Chawla said.
