No show: Lucky Ali

New Delhi, Nov. 26: Wedding-struck and International Trade Fair-steeped, the capital has proved unlucky for Indipop singer Lucky Ali whose concert today to support Indian farmers hit by World Trade Organisation policies was cancelled barely 24 hours before the event.

With the trade fair under way till tomorrow and the marriage season in full swing, the capital’s traffic is getting to crawl home. At their wits’ end to control the chaos on the streets, Delhi police decided against allowing Ali’s show as it was sure to draw a huge crowd to the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium.

While auspicious Wednesday saw over 15,000 marriages in the capital, the police are bracing for a hectic Sunday and Monday. Wedding hotspots include farmhouses in Mehrauli, Badarpur, Nangloi, Bijwasan, Najafgarh, Kapashera, Bawana and Narela.

“Traffic starts building up on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road by 8.30 pm because there are some farmhouses in Chattarpur and Ghitorni which host more than three weddings in the same compound,” said a police officer. “Now everyone wants to have their wedding in a farmhouse in south Delhi. So you have people coming from all over.”

No such luck for Lucky, though. Sanjeev Bhargav, organiser of the Make Trade Fair campaign concert, said: “After the recent Delhi blasts, we understand the police’s concern. We have had sponsors, contracts, singers and a whole show organised that will have to be postponed.

“But I am not going to put the lives of these 7,000 people at risk? Lucky Ali also shares their security concerns.”

Earlier, a Shahrukh Khan show, which was to be held by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People on September 17 at the same stadium, was cancelled after the police said they couldn’t handle the huge crowd.

They are worried about being able to do it on Sunday when, in Vasant Kunj for instance, at least 40 weddings will be held in a single locality. “All the farmhouses are in one area,” rued an officer. “Besides traffic, there are accidents and goondaism as people get drunk.”

Assistant commissioner Sanjay Bhatia’s appeal had a touch of desperation about it: “Families coming to one wedding should pool in one car. Usually, you see one person coming from home, another from work and a third from the parlour?.”

That may lighten traffic but by 9 pm, baraats spill on to the roads anyway, creating huge hold-ups across Delhi.

“We have suggested to farmhouse owners that if there are 10 weddings in one area, then an 11th shouldn’t be booked,” Bhatia said. “But we can’t enforce this. MCD (the civic body) is looking at restricting the number of weddings in a year.”

Delhi witnesses about 1.25 lakh weddings on the 60-70 auspicious days in a year.