Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

HR & CE to conduct 1,008 marriages

By S. Vydianathan

CHENNAI July 4. The HR and CE will solemnise 1,008 marriages at Tiruverkadu on the outskirts of the city on July 14, in the presence of the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa.

Couples from all over the State will be brought there along with their relatives the previous day, and accommodated in local colleges, schools and `kalyana mandapams'. Relatives, four each from the bride and bridegroom side, will be provided free boarding and lodging for two days.

The couples will be given, apart from `mangalasutra', free dhoti and saree and 19 household items, including bedding. The weddings will be solemnised at a `massive pandal' being erected on a seven-acre private land at MGR Nagar, in Tiruverkadu, which could accommodate about 25,000 people at time.

The Joint Commissioners of HR and CE from 10 zones in the State have been asked to enlist 100 prospective poor couples each in their regions. So far about 900 couples have been selected and the `magic figure' of 1,008 would be achieved by next week, according to HR and CE officials.

The couples are selected after a strict scrutiny. They have to produce certificates from local VAOs or revenue officials. Police verification is being done before short-listing them. Earlier, the mass marriage was fixed for July 7, but had to be postponed to `mobilise' 1,008 couples.

Sources said free marriages were being organised regularly by financially sound temples round the year for the poor and weaker sections.

Under the scheme, Rs. 3,000 was sanctioned for each couple. But this time, temples are coming together to organise weddings at one point for the convenience of the Chief Minister. This is not the first time that marriages on such a massive scale are being organised on behalf of the Government.

During her previous regime, the Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalithaa, who came under severe criticism by political parties for the lavish manner in which the marriage of her now-estranged foster son, V. N. Sudhagaran, was conducted, had organised marriages on behalf of the AIADMK for 1,100 couples at Chidambaram in October, 1995 and for another 5,004 couples in Tiruchi in February 1996.

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