CHITWAN, Aug 6: Adhering to the austerity measures and inspiring others to follow the suit, the Madi Municipality in Chitwan district has determined the ceiling for 'Dakshina' (the cash offerings made during rituals and festivals) not to exceed 101 rupees.
In the 35th executive meeting of the Municipality on Tuesday, Mayor Thakur Dhakal said the Town Assembly's decision to cap the cash gift for this amount was to buck the extravagant trend of offering cash gift more than one's means. Mayor Dhakal said that residents of the Municipality would be urged to implement the town assembly's decision.
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The decision was made in view of the prevailing disparity between the 'haves' and 'haves not' on the basis of how much they could offer as a cash gift in the festivals and rituals as marriage, worships, feasts and so on. Interestingly, the Madi folks too have to organize matrimonial ceremonies at their houses so that cost was cut on the venue hired elsewhere. The town assembly has concluded that by organizing marriage ceremonies and feasts at home, it could lessen the financial burden on the organizers and end the disparity prevailing in our society on the basis of class and purchasing power of the people, according to Dhakal.
In case the marriage ceremony was held at a party palace owing to some compulsions, the organizers ought to allocate some amount out of their budget to the Municipality, said Dhakal. "That amount will be collected and spent for the welfare of the orphans who stay in shelters run by the Municipality," he said, adding that there were altogether 37 orphan children staying in an orphanage at ward no 6 of the Municipality. There are a total of three-party palaces in Madi while new party palaces were also in the process of operating.
Spokesperson of the Municipality, Shivahari Subedi said that the Municipality will sponsor the education of a daughter up to higher secondary school if there were two or more than two daughters born in the same family. Furthermore, a Sahabhoj or shared feast will be organized on the day for the Elimination of caste-based discrimination, it was shared at a press conference organized here today.
