Navratra: Ghaziabad residents can`t buy meat for 9 days, mayor orders

`During Navratra, selling of meat will not be allowed in the open (across Ghaziabad) while it is banned (completely) near temples and in the bylanes where temples are located,` Ghaziabad Mayor said.

New Delhi: As Hindus celebrate Navratra from today (April 2), Ghaziabad Mayor Asha Sharma banned the sale of raw meat in the open during the nine-day-long festival. 

"During Navratra, selling of meat will not be allowed in the open (across Ghaziabad) while it is banned (completely) near temples and in the bylanes where temples are located. Shop owners can cover the meat which they are selling. We are not here to help anyone incur profit or loss," Sharma told PTI. The city mayor said that this norm is followed every year.

While affected shopkeepers told ANI that this is the first time that meat shops have been shut during Navratri in Ghaziabad. "Liquor shops are opened and meat shops are asked to shut. Our source of income has stopped, we'll incur losses of thousands. We've meat products worth lakhs kept in our shops," shopkeepers said.

District Magistrate of Ghaziabad RK Singh told PTI that meat shop owners will be disallowed to discard the animal carcasses in the open, adding that the health department of the municipal corporation will ensure sanitation near the meat shops during Navratra. "Only licensed meat shops will be allowed to open their shops in covered kiosks following cleanliness norms. No shop owner will be allowed to throw animal carcasses in open areas," Singh said. 

The Chaitra Navratra began on Saturday and will end on Ram Navami on April 10.  During the nine-day-long festival, devotees worship Goddess Durga in her different forms.