LAHORE - With the wedding season reaching its pinnacle, a large number of unregistered marriage halls, especially in open plots have mushroomed in every corner of the City. As the City District Government stands unmoved, the illegal marriage halls have also plagued the residential areas. So much so new housing schemes have abounded with unauthorised business with impunity. The CDGL is obliged to enlist as well as regularise the new unregistered marriage halls to bring them under tax network on annual basis. However, authority concerned just bothered to do paper work and shows its traditional lukewarm attitude. A senior official told The Nation on Tuesday that DCO Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta had devised a strategy to register the illegal banquet halls, which sprang up in every nook and corner and had been making sheer violation of the one-dish policy. He had also to circulate the letter ordering all Town Municipal Officers to prepare the lists of new unregistered marriage halls. But the plan remains dysfunctional till the filing of this story. According to survey the open plots converted into marriage halls could be spotted at Ferozepur Road, Canal Road, Muslim Town More, Wahdat Colony, Allama Iqbal Road, Gulberg, Cantonment area and Sabzazar. Moreover new unregistered marriage halls have also cropped up in a number of housing societies including those falling into LDA controlled area. The Nation learnt that viewing the hefty profit, people have also converted their houses into marriage halls and a large number of halls are situated in streets as well as inside roads and they do not care for pursuing the one dish ban. They openly entice the customers to hold the wedding ceremony with a number of dishes. Moreover, people are arranging wedding ceremonies at outdoor marriage halls due to their economical rates as compared to regular marriage halls. Big hotels, clubs and banquet halls could not accommodate a gathering of 500 to 600 people. To enquire about the strength of halls, President of Marriage Hall Association, Muhammad Ilyas said that there were 175 registered marriage halls in the City and unregistered ones are more than these figures. He also pointed out, the unregistered halls are serving more than one dish whereas the government has allowed only one-dish. People also complained that owners of the unregistered marriage halls claimed openly that they were not bound to pursue the one-dish policy, as their wedding halls were not registered, the sourced maintained. The DCO Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta told The Nation that CDGL has a complete list of marriage halls in the City that is updated on annual basis. He said licences for the banquette halls were issued and before giving them the licence all necessary measures were taken which includes the visit of the particular site.