Patna: Weddings in India are synonymous with gifts, but invitees to deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi's son's wedding on December 3 who want to lavish gifts on the newlywed couple are in for a surprise.

Modi on Tuesday revealed that he would set up a counter of the Dadhichi DehDaan Samiti at the wedding venue and those who would insist on giving some gift would be asked to donate at the counter of the Samiti and get a receipt.

Modi happens to be the patron of the Samiti, which works towards making people aware of the importance of organ donation.

The BJP leader takes part in several of such awareness programmes and of late he has also started visiting houses of persons whose family members pledge to donate their organs after death.

Modi, in his electronic invite for the ceremony, has categorically requested the invitees not to bring any gift to the wedding ceremony.

"There may be a few invitees who would insist on giving some cash as it is a very common practice in wedding ceremonies. All such invitees would be requested to donate the money to the Samiti and proper receipts would be given to them," Modi said.

Organ donation is in a nascent stage in Bihar, and efforts for building awareness are roughly six months old.

Having opted for electronic invitation cards only, the deputy chief minister also questioned the logic behind spending so much on getting cards printed and distributing them.

"Sixty-seventy years back there was no concept of marriage cards and invitation used to be sent through informal channels. Now, when mobile phone is available with almost everyone, what is the need of wasting money on printing cards?" he asked. "Invitations have been sent electronically to all and I hope that others too would follow this practice."

He also raised question on spending money on lighting arrangements and wedding orchestra parties by organising weddings in the evenings, He said that in several parts of India marriages are solemnised during the daytime.

"That is why I too decided to organise the wedding ceremony in the daytime," he said.

"The timing is 3pm to 5pm, which is neither meant for lunch nor refreshment. All those coming to attend the wedding would be offered prasad and a copy of Vedic mantras that are chanted for solemnizing marriages, with Hindi translations," he said.