Days after putting a ban on the sale, production, storage and distribution of food items with halal certification the Uttar Pradesh government issued yet another strange order to close all slaughterhouses and meat shops in the state on Saturday to commemorate the birth anniversary of Hindu spiritual leader Sadhu TL Vaswani.
The Yogi administration in an official statement declared November 25 as “no non-veg day” and urged the authorities to make sure that the order is followed strictly across the state. Every year on this date, all meat shops and slaughterhouses will remain shut according to the notification.
Sadhu Thanwardas Lilaram Vaswani, the founder of the Mira Education Movement, was a staunch advocate of vegetarianism and his birthday is recognised by his followers as International Meatless Day to promote vegetarianism.
With the introduction of “no non-veg day”, the BJP led government has used this ground to forcefully impose vegetarianism and target local meat businesses.
After the ban on halal certified products, to date, the state’s Food and Safety Department it has seized 2,275 kg of halal-certified products from 38 districts and inspected 482 business establishments.
