Udupi : State Muzrai minister Kota Srinivas Poojari on Thursday, December 5 informed that the state government will be organizing Mass weddings on April 26, 2020, across major temples in Udupi that falls under religious endowment department.

Addressing a meeting with presidents of various management committees of ‘A’ level temples in Udupi, Srinivas Poojari said, “Mass weddings will be held at 110 temples and there will no discrimination between APL and BPL cardholders. The groom and bride will get Rs.5000 and Rs. 10000 respectively to buy the cloths. In addition to this, Rs. 40000 will be credited to women to buy jewelry. All the payments will be credited to the bride and groom on the wedding day. The cost of food and other expenditures will be taken care of by the concerned temples.”

“The last day to register for this is March 27 and the details of the marriage will be announced in temples on April 1. If there are any objections it has to be submitted by April 6 and the final list will be announced on April 11,” he said speaking about marriage registration.

“This scheme is only applicable for those who are getting married for the first time and marriage registration will happen on the same day which will be issued by Women and Child Welfare Department. Important private organizations in the state are allowed to distribute gifts,” he informed.

“People can get more details about this by dialing a toll-free number between 10 Am – 6 PM that will be announced soon. If marriage cannot be held on April 26 in any temple, the mass weddings will be held on May 24. A meeting will be held with all the concerned temple heads, district ministers, MPs, MLAs, and elected representatives to collect opinion and guidance to make this program a success.” he added.

Srinivas further informed, “Dr. Veerendra Heggade, Udupi Pejawar Math Seer Sri Vishweshwa Theertha Swamiji, Ravishankar Guruji, Sudha Murthy, Veerashiva Math heads, Vokkaliga gurus and other important gurus will be present on the occasion to bless the bride and groom.”

DC G Jagadeesh, additional DC Sadashiva Prabhu, Udupi MLA Raghupathi Bhat, Kundapur sub-divisional officer Raju, trustees of various temples, all taluk tahsildars, religious endowment department officials were present in the meeting.