The Covid-19 pandemic has virtually ruined the catering industry in the State and the caterers are facing severe financial hardships due to their clients cancelling marriages, birthday parties and funeral gatherings.
Like their colleagues in the restaurant industry, they have been left at the mercy of municipal authorities and public health agencies, whose new or revised guidelines randomly for crowd sizes, have affected the livelihood of more than 10 lakh persons, who are directly or indirectly employed in the sector.
In the second phase of the pandemic, the State Government has issued guidelines that maximum 50 people are allowed in a marriage ceremony. The All Odisha Caterers and Tent House association at a Press meet here on Monday said that from March 2020 onwards, the industry has been devastated and they are not in a position to sustain their families and staffs.
They appealed the Government to increase the crowd size to 300 from 50 at the marriage ceremonies which are usually of four to five hours duration. The association said if 300 people come to a marriage ceremony, hardly 50 to 60 people would be present in a marriage mandaps or hall every hour.
The Government has issued guidelines that auditoriums and cinema halls can operate at 50 per cent capacity. They demanded that the Government to apply the same norms for marriage halls and mandaps.
Association president Binay Bhusan Patnaik said they had adhered to Covid-19 protocols issued by the Government strictly in the past and now they would continue doing so.
He requested the concerned authorities to consider their demands sympathetically. Among others, Anup Kumar Bagai, Prabodh Kumar Das, Dwarinath Panda, Purna Chandra Das and Bibhuti Bhusan Swain were present.