HISAR: Residents of Aryanagar in Haryana’s Hisar district have banned love marriages within the village, warning they wouldn’t allow such couples to live among them.Locals said the decision, made at a village meeting Sunday, aimed to “preserve social fabric” following three to four love marriages. Around 1,000 people gathered for the meeting, including the families of a couple who had recently married for love. Aryanagar is the native village of PWD minister Ranbir Gangwa’s in-laws.BJP neta and resident Hanuman Verma said this wasn’t just a panchayat diktat, and that residents had collectively chosen to discourage love marriages within the village as they considered every daughter their own. He also denied any resolution for a social boycott. Villagers said families shouldn’t be blamed if a couple decided to defy their wishes and marry. A committee would be formed to work on the issue, and a door-to-door survey would be conducted to ascertain if residents supported the decision.Aryanagar sarpanch Ratan Lal declined to comment on the matter.
