LUCKNOW: Amid all the uproar over meat ban across India, Lucknow went ahead with the meat ban quietly on Friday on the occasion of Jain's festival Paryushan. Lucknow Municipal Corporation 's chief veterinary officer issued an order to the meat sellers' association on September 14 to observe the closure on Friday. “It is done every year on Paryushan, the main festival of Jains,” his letter says.

The ban saw almost a complete closure of butchers’ shops across city. Though a few shops tried to open in the morning, LMC was vigilant enough to stop them right away. The LMC officials say that the ban was imposed every year and there was never a problem like in Maharashtra where the issue went to the high court and eventually the Supreme Court .

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Since the ban was limited only to the slaughtering of animals for one day, famous non-vegetarian restaurants and eateries of city didn’t face shortage of raw meat. Manager of a famous chain specializing in Awadhi cuisine said, “All big hotels and restaurants were prepared beforehand hence we had stocked up to.” Though few shopkeepers reported some drop in sales, people turned out in usual numbers .

Owner of a non-vegetarian eatery at Rana Pratap Marg said, “We saw sale of our restaurant dropping to almost 30% on Friday as our customers confused the ban on slaughter houses with the ban on non-vegetarian eateries too. We saw people coming and asking us whether they are allowed to eat mutton on ban day or not.” Restaurant owners of the city felt that the LMC should have informed public well in advance and told that there was no ban on eating meat.

The municipal corporation calls for ban on slaughtering every year depending on the date requested by the Jain community of the city. LMC’s veterinary officer, Dr Arvind Kumar Rao said, “This has never been a source of conflict among people and meat sellers of the city so far. Since nobody objected to the announcement and it is implemented every year peacefully, we decided to go ahead with the ban. There is hardly any impact on the common people as they continue to get cooked meat in shops.”

