About 10 major temples coming under the Department of Religious Endowments in Karnataka will undertake “rath yatras” for informing the public about mass marriages that would be held in the State on April 26, 2020.
The publicity campaign through “rath yatra” will be flagged off from the Mookambika temple in Kollur in Udupi district from February 13.
The mass marriage programme “Saptapadi”, would be held in 100 major temples of the Muzrai Department the. The second phase would be held on May 24, 2020, Minister for Ports and Fisheries and Muzrai Kota Srinivas Poojary said on Friday.
The Information and Publicity Department has been roped in for providing publicity to the programme and it was decided to install 750 publicity boards across the State.
The district administration, district in-charge ministers, MLAs/MLCs and local level officials have made elaborate arrangements for the successful conduct of the marriages.
There would be no discrimination against APL and BPL families for mass marriages, Mr. Poojary said. The groom would be given a garland, a panche, a shirt and a shawl and ₹5,000 in cash. The bride would be given a garland, a sari and other items and ₹1,000 in cash. Also, the bride would be given ₹40,000 for a gold ‘thali’ and ‘gundu’ of eight grams, he added.
The Muzrai Department has also roped in Social Welfare and Revenue departments to ensure more benefits to the couples. Under the Social Welfare Department scheme, a sum of ₹50,000 cash would be given to each SC/ST couple while under the Revenue department ₹10,000 would be given.
The Revenue Department had not utilised ₹2 crore allocated under the Adharsha Vivaha programme and the fund would be used for giving ₹10,000 to each couple during the marriage, Mr. Poojary said.
The last date for registration of prospective grooms and brides is April 1, 2020. The list of names of grooms and brides who enrol for the mass marriages would be published in the temples. The last date for filing objections to this list is April 6, 2020.
Only those persons marrying for the first time could tie the knot at the mass marriages. Those intending to get married should submit proper government documents. The Registrar of Marriages would register the marriages at these temples.
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