• Choultry Owners Association holds meeting in city
• Decides to wait for written order to refund advance amount

Mysore/Mysuru: After receiving several complaints of wedding hall owners not refunding the money even after the cancellation of scheduled wedding dates owing to lockdown, the State Government has directed all such hall owners to immediately refund the money to those who seek it.

“Many people have started complaining that hall owners are insisting on rescheduling of dates and are not willing to refund the money. The owners are bound to refund the money,” Revenue Minister R. Ashok had told reporters a couple of days back. 

Following the Minister’s directive, Choultry owners of Mysuru held a meeting at Sindhoora Convention Hall this morning and said that it will be difficult to refund the advance money taken from marriage parties when they (Choultry owners) themselves are suffering huge losses. 

“Revenue Minister Ashok has told us orally to refund the advance amount. But we have decided to wait for a written order from the Government and examine it detail to take a decision. We need to see on what parameters the Government will ask us to refund the money when we are suffering losses and are staring at uncertain future,” K.R. Sathyanarayana, President of Mysuru Kalyan Mantap Owners Association, told ‘Star of Mysore.’ 

Families of couples who had booked Choultries have complained to the Government that many Choultry owners and managements are refusing to refund the advance money that ranges from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 1.50 lakh depending on the Choultry popularity. 

Some aggrieved parties approached Minster Ashok to take action against such wedding hall owners. They said that only a few are thinking of rescheduling the dates, while several of them are not certain of any date and are asking for the refund.

“The hall owners have no right to keep the money when they are not offering any service. Keeping money without any service is illegal”, said Ashok. He even warned the Choultry owners that action under the Disaster Management Act would be taken against errant owners of wedding halls and convention centres if they don’t refund the full amount or at least deduct the tax amount and then refund,” he added.

There are over 85 Choultries in Mysuru with 60 of them located within the city limits. Due to lockdown, 60 percent of the people who had planned weddings in March, April and May have cancelled the functions and have performed small ceremonies at their homes.  “Instead of arbitrarily ordering us to refund the advance money, the State Government must come to our rescue. The last three months have been terrible for us with no business and with the Government restrictions following COVID-19 pandemic, we will be out of business for the next one year. How is it possible for us to survive,” Sathyanarayana asked. 

As salaries for employees and workers, security guards, water tax, maintenance, electricity, GST, Income Tax and bank loan instalments all come up to huge expenditure, the Government must announce a financial package, he demanded. 

Secretary of Mysuru Kalyana Mantapa Owners Association Venkatesh, Treasurer Manoj Kumar, Choultry owners Shivanna, Shashidhar, Chandrashekar, Mallinath and others attended the meeting.