Meat shops in Delhi remain open as owners await official order

Most meat shops in the city opened on Wednesday with owners citing an absence of official order against it, even as mayors threatened the meat shop owners a day earlier to down their shutters during Navratri.

New Delhi: Most meat shops in the city opened on Wednesday with owners citing an absence of official order against it, even as mayors threatened the meat shop owners a day earlier to down their shutters during Navratri. No official order has been issued so far despite the south and east Delhi mayors on Tuesday asking meat shops in their jurisdictions to remain shut during Navratri, claiming that "most people do not consume non-vegetarian food" for nine days.

Mayors don't have the power to issue such orders, which can only be taken by a municipal commissioner. Yunus Idres Qureshi, Delhi Meat Association Vice President, said that the meat business across Delhi is functioning as usual as no official order has been issued. "The sale of meat is anyway impacted during Navaratri. Our sale drops to 20-25 percent during Navaratri every year. We have not received any official order asking us to shut our shops, hence our business is functioning as usual. Mayor's request is politically motivated," he said.

Shopkeepers in South Delhi including Jamia Nagar, Zakir Nagar, and INA said that if an official order comes, they will close their shops. Several meat markets remained shut on Tuesday under fear of action from the authorities. On Wednesday, meat shops in the INA market were found open. There are around 40 shops in the market.

Sanjay Kumar, manager at Bombay Fish Shop in INA, said: "All shops are open. Yesterday we closed them down as there was a sense of fear that action will be taken against us. We were expecting official order by Tuesday evening. No order has been issued so far, so we have opened the shops."' Kumar said that most shopkeepers are waiting for an official order. "Once the order comes, we will close these shops," he said.

Meat shops in Zakir Nagar and Jamia Nagar too were found open. There are around 15 shops in Jamia Nagar, and the majority of them were open. Mostly all shops are open. It is a Muslim majority area. On an individual basis, some shops are closed. If an order comes, we will close our shops. Until then, the shops are open, Nawabuddin, a meat shop owner, said.

Salaudin, owner of the SL buffalo meat shop in Jamia Nagar, was among the few who chose to keep their shops shut. We opened the shop on Monday morning but closed it in the evening. Today also we have kept the shop closed. Probably the order will come today, so we have decided to keep the shops closed, he said.

Meanwhile, in Lajpat Nagar and Kalkaji Mandir, shopkeepers said they keep their shops closed during Navaratri every year. A worker at Kabab Meat Shop in Kalkaji said: "Nobody eats meat during Navaratri so we keep our shop close. Fear spread wide across meat markets in the city after South Delhi Municipal Corporation Mayor Mukesh Suryan threatened of serious action if the meat shops were not shut down during the nine-day festival.

East Delhi Mayor Shyam Sunder Aggarwal followed his suit and called for the shops' shutting down, arguing "90 percent people do not consume non-vegetarian food" during the festival. There has been no such word from the North municipality concurring or disagreeing with the two mayors yet.

PTI