punjab

Updated: Apr 02, 2015 20:46 IST

Several restaurants and other eating joints made a mockery of the ban order of the police commissioner by selling non-vegetarian food items in the city on the occasion of Mahavir Jayanti on Thursday.

Ludhiana police commissioner Pramod Ban had prohibited the sale of meat and egg items, keeping in view the sentiments of the Jain community.

Obeying the norms, many restaurants and eating joints, which deal with non-vegetarian food items, remained closed but some of them flouted the norms.

HT team visited different restaurants and eating joints in the city and found many international food chains selling non-vegetarian stuffs. HT has in possession the food bills of different eateries that confirms that these were serving the banned eatables to the customers. Subway, Café Coffee Day and Chawla Chicken were among the outlets who were serving non-vegetarian items.

Mahavir Jayanti, also known as Mahavir Janma Kalyanak, is the most important religious festival for the Jain community. It celebrates the birth anniversary of Lord Mahavira.

Sandeep Jain, coordinator of Vishav Jain Santhan, Punjab Chapter, said, “The orders were passed by the police commissioner for not selling non-vegetarian items in the city so that the religious sentiments of Jain community are not hurt. Those who have violated the orders should be booked under Sections 295-A and 153-B of the IPC.”

A city resident, Rajan Jain, said, “I had taken signature from Subway outlet situated on Chandigarh Road for not selling non-vegetarian food on behalf of all the outlets. But still these flouted the norms and hurt the religious sentiments of Jain community. Other eateries were also serving non-vegetarian food. Police should register a case against all of them.”

When contacted, police commissioner Parmod Ban said, “The police will take strict action against the violators.”