No June weddings in Kovai

The state government is pulling out all stops to make the world Tamil conference a success. And while doing so, it has put a stop to all weddings during this period in Coimbatore city. The reason — the choultries will in all probability be used to house the over a lakh of people attending the conference from June 23 to 27.

There has been an unofficial communication from police to almost all the choultries not to allot them for marriages or functions. According to Mr N. Vasudevan, choultry owner, who has stopped bookings for a month on the request of the local police, there are four muhurtams next month, and those who had booked much earlier have taken back their advance.

Families which had fixed marriages during these dates have now started looking at either alternative dates or locations. “We had booked the kalyana mandapam almost a year ago and now we are told to look elsewhere,” said father of a to-be-bride, R. Sundaraman (name changed).

Mr M. Anand and Ms S. Sowmya who planned to get married in June, after a major ordeal convincing their parents, are not able to find a venue. “We are postponing our marriage.”

States Mr C.M. Jayaraman of Citizens Voice Club, “The government could have scheduled the conference during Purattasi and Margazhi (mid-September to mid-October and from mid-December to mid-January) so that it did not inconvenience the public.”

A senior police officer said such a major conference was a gigantic exercise. “Policemen will be accommodated in schools and colleges, while delegates and cultural artistes will be in hotels, guesthouses and choultries.”