Govt to probe underage marriages

PUNE: A day after the Times of India reported that suspected underage marriages had taken place at the Ektanagar slums in Vishtrantwadi, state women and child welfare minister Harshavardhan Patil on Tuesday ordered an enquiry into the incident.
Speaking to TNN from Mumbai, Patil said the enquiry would be conducted by the deputy commissioner (women and child welfare) and "serious action" would be taken against anyone found guilty.The enquiry will consist of an examination of the birth records of the couples who were married on Monday in the mass marriage ceremony held under the ''new year festival'' organised by local Congressmen, corporator Hulgesh Chalwadi and Bopodi MLA Chandrakant Chhajed.
The role of the police in the entire matter will also be investigated and action will be taken on the basis of the findings of the report, said Patil, an independent MLA from Indapur in Pune district.
Meanwhile, one of the organisers of the mass marriage, Congress corporator Hulgesh Chalwadi, clarified that he had cancelled three marriages at the last moment after the couples were found to be underaged. Though a total of 15 marriages were planned, three were cancelled on Monday morning, he said.
He said the Ektanagar residents held such mass marriages every year but this year, the ''new year festival'' had decided to bear the cost as "the poor people in the slums almost go bankrupt trying to bear the costs".
"This is a ploy to defame me," Chalwadi said, who is in the contention for the post of Pune mayor. Meanwhile, women''s rights activist and Shiv Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe, who also heads the Stree Aadhar Kendra, has demanded that the role of the police in the episode be probed.