New Delhi Civic Body to Conduct Survey to Find Shops Selling Meat Near Temples

The New Delhi Municipal Corporation said that they would relocate shops selling meat near temples.

Image used for representational purposes only. 

(Photo: Accessed by he Quint) 

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) said on Wednesday, 25 May, that it will conduct a survey to find whether any shop or eatery near religious places in its jurisdiction was selling non-vegetarian food.

The matter was discussed at meeting conducted at the civic body's council meeting, where the NDMC chairman and vice-chairman said that they visited Sri Venkateswara Swamy-Tirupati Balaji Temple and discovered that several shopkeepers were selling non-vegetarian food nearby, PTI reported.

NDMC Vice-Chairman Satish Upadhyay said, "I visited Sri Venkateswara Swamy - Tirupati Balaji Temple along with Chairman-NDMC and found that there are many shopkeepers who are selling and serving non-veg food with the wall connecting to the temple which is not good. Such issues would not be tolerated and I warn the heads of departments to take immediate action on it," PTI reported.

'Shops Selling Meat Near Temples Should be Relocated' 

The council said that they would also initiate a plan to relocate shops selling meat near the temples.

"All NDMC areas should be surveyed to check for nearby, adjoining or close distance proximity of all meat shops with religious places and should be relocating to another place," he added.

This comes after the south and east municipal corporations asked for meat shops to be closed in their respective jurisdictions during the Navratri festival.

In April, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) mayor Mukesh Suryan had also threatened to take strict action if meat shops were not closed during Navratri.

The mayor of East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) Shyam Sunder Aggarwal had also supported the move.

However, most meat shops continued to function during the festival, arguing that no official order had been released regarding it.

(With inputs from PTI.)