Cuttack, Sept. 22: Implementation of the municipal corporation's new policy to regulate the functioning of all kalyan mandaps (wedding venues) in the city has run into a hurdle again.

The new guidelines, formulated for the first time, defined the eligibility criteria for a licence to run a kalyan mandap. Orissa High Court endorsed it on August 10 and directed the civic body to go ahead with issuing the licences. Subsequently, a special squad had verified the information supplied by owners of kalyan mandaps on their applications for the issue of licence.

While applications were received from owners of 114 kalyan mandaps, a majority of them were found not eligible in accordance with the new guidelines, an official source said.

Yesterday, the civic body's predicament came up before the high court while it was taking stock of the implementation of the new guidelines.

Speaking to The Telegraph, amicus curiae Arun Kumar Budhia said: "Taking note of it, the division bench of Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice S.C. Parija, directed the Cuttack Municipal Corporation to submit a report on the verification carried out in response to the owners of the kalyan mandaps."

"While posting the matter to September 28, the court expected the report to be in a tabular form indicating the number of eligibility conditions each of the kalyan mandaps fulfilled," Budhia said.

In March, Orissa High Court had registered a PIL and made it mandatory for kalyan mandaps to obtain licences from the municipal corporation. These wedding halls had been a matter of concern because they created traffic chaos by increasing congestion on roads in various parts of the city. The approach roads to these banquet halls are mostly used for wedding celebrations.

"Under the new policy, we had decided not to grant licences unless required parking area was made available," municipal commissioner Gyana Das told The Telegraph. The new guidelines had made earmarking 40 per cent of built up area for parking, "a statutory requirement".

"But we had decided to allow old kalyan mandaps, which have been functioning at least for five years and have 20 per cent of the built up area for parking purposes on the condition that there would be no parking on public roads," the municipal commissioner said.

"We will submit the report for consideration of the high court on the assigned date," Das said.