Jasbir Singh Gill, Congress MP From Punjab, Demands India Bring A 'Pakistan-Like' Law Restricting Guests To 50, Dishes To 11 At Weddings

Jasbir Singh Gill, a Congress member of parliament representing the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab, on Wednesday demanded the government bring a law to restrict the number of guests to 50 and limit the number of dishes served at marriage functions to 11 or less.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Gill said that it is necessary to remove the wastage of money during weddings through legislative interventions.

He suggested that the government should frame a law that should restrict guests to 50 each from the grooms and the brides side and food items served should not be more than 11.

Claiming that such laws exists in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Gill said that legislating against ostentatious marriages will not cost the government anything.

Citing an example, he claimed that in some marriage functions, the guests are served as many as 289 items and the cost is 2,500 per plate.

In 2011, the UPA government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh mooted a proposal to legislation in Parliament soon to curb profligacy at such 'extravagant events' like marriages. The food and consumer affairs even initiated deliberations on a legislation loosely modelled on the infamous Guest Control Order of the 1960s during the Congress regime. This order restricted the number of guests at weddings in order to regulate the wastage of food items.

The then food and consumer affairs minister K. V. Thomas claimed THAT close to 15 per cent of all foodgrains and vegetables in India are wasted through "extravagant functions", and said that the government wants to introduce a piece of legislation in Parliament soon to curb profligacy at such events.

Over the years, both the federal and provincials governments in Pakistan have tried to bring law with penal provisions for those who indulging in what was termed as "ostentatious displays and wasteful expenses on marriage."