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.

Meat and liquor are different, they can't be equated with each other. It's related to religious sentiments. It happens everytime that during Navratri raw meat can't be sold in vicinity of temple: Asha Sharma, Mayor, Ghaziabad pic.twitter.com/zKYQLcX3ZC

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) April 2, 2022