Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs (FCSC&A) Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali Tuesday urged people to refrain from making lavish spending on social functions.Speaking during a review meeting, the Minister said that he has received reports from various quarters that some people try to create an extravaganza with lavish spending during social gatherings, especially in marriage functions. These people apparently have an illusion that their spending power defines their status symbol, he added.The Minister said that ours is a close knit society where people knowingly or unknowingly get affected by each other’s actions. He said that if affluent families start a trend, it eventually flows down to people living here and there. And soon it would become norm of the society where everyone feels obligated to follow, he said.Mr. Zulfkar Ali stressed on people, especially affluent families and people with good spending power to set up good example for everyone by curtailing unnecessary expenditures during their social gatherings, particularly during marriages. He also requested them to put a check on the innovations that eventually become part of society.
He said that being a responsible member of society we should think about the repercussions that our actions would have on our society, especially on people belonging to lower strata. He added that the kind of spending that is being done on marriage functions these days is chocking people from downtrodden section of our society as they find it extremely hard to match or to come near to it.The Minister attributed the number of cuisines served during the marriage functions as “irrational” and “illogical.” He said that those hosts whose menu cards read more than 20 dishes, should think that they are serving humans, with limited eating capacity, and not animals. Instead of serving 20 or more dishes, the Minister said that it would be wise enough to let people relish fever dishes only.Mr. Ali added that there are millions in the world who starve to death as they do not get food to eat, and yet, there are some selfish among our society who in pursuit to satisfy their false egos waste food by increasing number of cuisines that eventually get it thrown into waste bins only.Secretary FCS&CA, Special Secretary Law, Director FCS&CA Kashmir and other concerned officers attended the meeting.