The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday started sealing the city’s Kalyan Mandaps which lack necessary approvals.
A joint team of the BMC and the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) carried out the process, which commenced with sealing of a Kalyan Mandap in Saheed Nagar.
As many as 80 Kalyan Mandaps would be sealed during the drive for various factors like functioning without building plan approvals, trade licences, nonpayment of property tax and inadequate parking facilities.
The BMC had set a deadline of January 31 for the Kalyan Mandaps for rectifying the irregularities.
Notably, the order for sealing the Kalyan Mandaps was issued by the BMC after it found that more than 80 per cent of the Kalyan Mandaps and marriage halls have failed to comply with the requisite norms.
The BMC had served notices to 94 mandaps while 14 of them complied with the order.
However, Rajya Nagarika Samaj president Prakash Rath alleged that the Kalyan Mandap sealing move is a conspiracy between the BMC and hotel owners. The people who had booked the mandaps for marriages, thread ceremonies and birthday parties have been left in the lurch by the decision. The BMC should have given a thought to this before embarking on the sealing drive.