Venkaiah endorses taxing fat weddings

The State government’s plan to bring in an amendment to the Karnataka Marriage Regulation Act 1976 by taxing the lavish weddings received support from Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu.

Replying to a query by the media persons here on Friday, Naidu said it is meaningless to spend on extravagant weddings, while the 26 per cent of the population in the country lives under poverty. “These weddings which are sometimes for four to five days is meaningless. People are living in poverty and the middleclass is struggling for their children’s education,” he said.

On questioned what should be done to prevent such weddings, he said, “Such marriages should be discouraged by not attending them.” 

Stating that the marriages are becoming a show of strength and to display their public contacts, he said, “earlier the weddings were restricted only to the two families of bride and groom, then it was for the relatives and later on for villages.

Today it has exceeded everything,” he said. He appreciated Law Minister T B Jayachandra for proposing an amendment to tax such weddings.