Karnataka government prohibits religious events, limits indoor marriages to 100 people

Bengaluru: Aimed to control the spike in Covid-19 cases in the State, the Karnataka government on Friday decided to impose restrictions on the gathering of people for events and celebrations like marriages, birthday parties and cremations among others.

As per rules, in the case of marriages and political celebrations, 200 people are permitted in an open space, but religious celebrations have been completely banned.

While if the marriage is in a closed space, the limit is 100, for birthdays and other celebrations 50 people are allowed in open spaces and 25 in closed areas. In case of funerals, the permissible limit is 50 in an open space, and 25 in a closed area. Also for cremations and burials it will be 25 people.

Stating that all the COVID-19 preventive measures and guidelines prescribed by the government should be strictly followed, an order signed by Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar said, the places where such events are held like marriage halls, halls among others must be compulsorily sanitised.

Instructing officials to strictly enforce the measure, it said, action can be taken against those violating under relevant sections of the Disaster Management Act, IPC and other laws.

The move comes as the state on Friday reported its biggest single day spike of 14,859 new cases of COVID-19, and 78 related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 11,24,509 and the death toll to 13,190. The total number of active cases stood at 1,07,315.