The Jammu and Kashmir government on Tuesday imposed a number of restrictions on weddings and other such social gatherings to reduce the “injudicious use” of resources and essential items. It capped the number of guests at the wedding ceremony and occasions like engagements, Consumer Affairs Minister Choudhary Zulfikar Ali told ANI. It is the first state to introduce such restrictions.

In case of daughters, a maximum of 500 guests are allowed while at son’s wedding up to 400 can be invited. For engagements and such other events, the number of guests has been restricted to 100. The number of items on the menu have also been limited, The Financial Express reported.

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The government has also banned sending sweets or dry fruits with invitation cards. Loudspeakers cannot be played and firecrackers cannot be used during any government or private social functions, it said. All of these restrictions will be effective from April 1.

The announcements come soon after a similar Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha earlier this month. The Bill had sought to cap the number of guests that can be invited to a wedding. The Marriages (Compulsory Registration and Prevention of Wasteful Expenditure) Bill, 2016, proposes that families that spend more than Rs 5 lakh for a wedding must declare the amount and contribute 10% of it to a welfare fund that will be established by the government.

The Bill adds that the government may specify the number of guests and relatives, and the number of dishes served during the ceremony or at the reception after, so that wastage of food items is avoided. The Bill might be taken up as a private member’s Bill in the next Parliament session.

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Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan, who had introduced the Bill, had said that the fashion of spending lavishly is growing in the country. Marriages have become more about “showing off your wealth”, as a result of which the poor feel that they are under “social pressure to spend more”, she had said.

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