50 marriage palaces face closure for violating rules in Jalandhar

Following the orders of the Punjab and Haryana high court, municipal corporations of Jalandhar and Phagwara are set to seal over 50 ‘unauthorised’ marriage palaces for violating properties registration rules.

Launching a drive against marriage palaces, the Jalandhar municipal corporation sealed five such venues in last three days. In Phagwara, the civic body sealed two marriage palaces on Sunday. Prior notice has been served to all such palaces. As per information, out of 55 marriage palaces, 39 are violating norms in Jalandhar. In Phagwara 11 are violating the norms out of total 15 under the jurisdiction of the concerned municipal corporations (MCs).

The action comes ahead of a hearing in Punjab and Haryana high court scheduled for March 28, to review the status report on marriage palaces. “The MC commissioners and principal secretary (local bodies) will appear for the hearing,” an official said.

Prampal Singh, municipal town planner Phagwara, who has an additional charge of Phagwara MC said, “The marriage palace owners failed to get a No-objection-certificate (NoC) in the stipulated time given to them. The government had introduced a fresh policy for regularising palaces in August last year but the owners gave a lukewarm response to it.”

He said that Surjeet Marriage Palace, Rai Palace, and Bansal Palace were sealed in Jalandhar on Sunday. In Phagwara, City Palace, Lal Marriage Palace has been sealed after issuing notices. “Action against the remaining palaces will be initiated soon if they fail to get NoC for their properties,” MTP said.

Under the policy, if the existing palaces have one side street opening with a stipulated minimum width, it can also be considered a setback. For this, the applicant has to obtain a fire safety certificate. However, the policy does not provide relaxation for the front setback.

"The marriage palace exists on the national highway, the regularisation fee for which is ₹40 lakh per acre, while for those on other roads is Rs 28 lakh. The fee includes a change of land use (CLU), external development charges (EDC), license fee (LF) and social infrastructure fee (SIF),”  Pardeep Sehgal, ATP of MC Phagwara said.

The government had provided 20% rebate on the CLU, EDC, LF, and SIF on parking area of palaces established between August 17, 2007, and November 16, 2012 till December 31 but despite it, MC received a lukewarm response from the palace owners.