Like how other Industries, Cinema Theaters, Malls are given nod to function with 50% capacity, the same should be extended to the weddings. If not, lakhs of people who depend on this field will suffer, said Catering Owners Association on Monday.
The State Heads of the Catering Owners Association under the leadership of the association’s President R. Nagaraj approached the Coimbatore District Collector and handed over a petition to him highlighting how the new limitation over participants in wedding events will impact the whole catering business.
In the letter to the Collector, the association mentioned that they only get works for 125 days in a year. Approximately 20 lakh people all over Tamil Nadu that includes 1 lakh in Covai are involved in catering and wedding allied works.
This new announcement that only 100 people should participate in weddings inorder to contain Covid spread, would seriously affect the catering industry.
They asked for clarity over who are 100 people allowed in the halls – does the number exclude or include caterers, Photographers and videographers.
The Government should release SOP for weddings, they added.
The industry has asked the Revenue Department or Health Department to inspect the wedding halls to find the hall’s occupants capacity, and then permit 50% of the total capacity. They also mentioned that not all the Attendees will arrive at the same time to the weddings.
They also asked for mandating face masks, hand sanitation, body temperature checking, arranging chairs in a Social-Distance manner in prior, sanitising the halls every 4 hours, checking the employees’ temperature, mandating wearing of masks, gloves, hairnets etc.
The association discussed with members over positive ways to achieve 50% occupancy in wedding halls. One of them is the #SaveCaterers initiative.
They announced that they have planned to take the scenario to the eyes of public via social media.
Apart from this, they have plans to give a petition to the Tamil Nadu Governor and Chief Secretary regarding their issue soon.