Ahmedabad bans sale of non-veg food items on roads, near schools
The restriction comes days after the Vadodara and Rajkot municipal corporations in Gujarat ordered shopkeepers and hawkers to cover non-vegetarian food, including eggs, saying it could hurt religious sentiments of Hindus.
Ahmedabad has become the latest city in Gujarat to raise concerns regarding non-vegetarian items being sold on the streets. Stalls selling such items have been banned along public roads and in the 100-metre radius of schools, colleges and religious places, news agency ANI reported.
“The execution (of the order) will start tomorrow,” Devang Dani, chairman of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s town planning committee said.
Meanwhile, Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel said that the prohibition is not a “question of vegetarian and non-vegetarian” items. “People are free to eat whatever they want. But the food being sold at stalls should not be harmful and the stalls should not obstruct traffic flow,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.
The restriction in Ahmedabad comes days after the Vadodara and Rajkot municipal corporations in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled state ordered shopkeepers and hawkers to cover non-vegetarian food, including eggs, saying it could hurt religious sentiments of Hindus. It also added that smoke emerging from such places also causes health hazards.
Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) standing committee chairman Hitendra Patel issued oral directives on Thursday to remove all roadside non-vegetarian food stalls if they failed to cover the items properly. He added that the practice of displaying meat, fish, and eggs at stalls might have continued for several years but it was time to end it.
