The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Several hitches in the big fat Indian wedding

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Several hitches in the big fat Indian wedding

Afshan Yasmeen

A third of the city’s choultries do not have a licence, raising questions over their safety mechanisms

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

SPiLLOVER: Vehicles are often parked haphazardly on roads near marriage halls, causing inconvenience to pedestrians and affecting traffic.

BANGALORE: The wedding ceremony is an all-important event in our society, the day a relationship is given the social seal of approval. The irony is an estimated 60 per cent of such auspicious events take place at illegal venues in our city! Of the 900-odd wedding and community halls in Bangalore, about 300 do not have a licence.

Most of the owners of these halls have not obtained the mandatory no-objection certificate from the police, fire and emergency services and pollution control departments. This means that safety mechanisms may not be in place at all.

The basements of almost all choultries are places where disasters are waiting to happen as they are being used as kitchens and dining halls. Gas cylinders and stoves are stocked in the basements, which lack ventilation and an emergency exit. With a higher temperature in basements, there are chances that a cylinder might burst even as the wedding ceremonies are on. With the basements being misused, vehicles of guests spill onto the roads causing inconvenience to pedestrians and affecting traffic.

Now that the Bangalore Development Authority’s Revised Master Plan 2015 has allowed for “kalyana mantapas” in residential areas as part of its larger “vision” to allow certain commercial activities for integrated development of the city, the situation might worsen.

The High Court route

Though this is a pertinent issue bothering the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the civic body has not been able to do anything about it.

“That is because some owners of wedding choultries have approached the Karnataka High Court seeking permission to allow them to continue using the basements as dining halls,” BBMP Health Officer (West Zone) Devaki Umesh said.

If that is some justification, then there are also several halls in the city that have been running without paying the property tax or obtaining a trade licence fee from the BBMP. In fact, most owners of choultries have not bothered to obtain a licence because they know they do not comply with the norms — the main violation being the misuse of basements.

“Though these owners charge hefty amounts from citizens for using the hall for a day and their monthly turnover is in crores, they would want to escape paying property tax that would be less than what they earn a day,” another official said. According to a rough estimate, weddings are held on a maximum of 150 days in a year. For example, the owner of a reputed wedding hall in Basaveshwaranagar charges his customers Rs 1.75 lakh a day. But he does not want to pay the annual property tax, which works out lesser than a day’s rent.

Two marriage halls in Koramangala have been doing business for the last 12 years without paying property tax to the BBMP. Now if the justification given by officials is anything to go by, then the defaulting owners had not produced valid documents for “khata” registration. “That’s why we could not fix the tax. We will issue a holder “khata” and recover tax from them,” is all that the jurisdictional East Zone health official said.

This is disputed by the former corporator Padmavathy G. who pointed out that most owners form a nexus with the officials who allow them to continue business illegally.

Though the former BMP Commissioner K. Jothiramalingam had even purchased 150 locks to seal all unauthorised halls in the city, the drive ended soon after it started.

Getting away with it

But the officials’ justification is disputed by concerned citizens. “The choultry owners can get away without paying tax only because the officials allow them to do so. According to the rules, a separate rate is in place for choultries run in industrial, commercial and residential areas. If proper action is initiated, the BBMP can increase its revenue by at least Rs. 200 crore,” G. Krishnappa, another former corporator, said.

Moreover, the licence fee and tax is fixed on the basis of the built- up area and not the charges collected from the customers. Though some health officials pointed this out to their higher-ups and suggested that the fee and tax can be calculated on the basis of a day’s revenue, it has fallen on deaf ears. BBMP Commissioner S. Subramanya admits that besides the choultries, there are also halls attached to temples and hotels, which are largely unregulated. “BBMP is setting new guidelines to keep tabs on all of them,” he said.

So your ceremonies could be legal but the venue will always be illegal if the civic body does not get stricter.

There are around 20 BBMP community halls in the city of which hardly four to five are being put to use. The rest are used only for temporary rehabilitation of affected families during rains. There are no takers for these halls because they are badly maintained and are in a dilapidated condition.

But there are exceptions such as the BBMP Community Hall in Rajajinagar 6th Block, which is very popular primarily because of its location.

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