On Friday, a Hindu organisation urged the Gurugram Municipal Corporation not to award any additional licences for new meat shops in the city. The Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti has requested that the issuance of newly granted licences be revoked given the existence of the Sheetla Mata shrine in the area, in a memorandum written to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
The Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti was outraged by Gurugram Municipal Corporation’s (GMC) decision to provide 126 new licences for meat selling in the city. According to the Samiti, CM Khattar had guaranteed that no new licences for the selling of meat will be allowed in Gurugram because it is home to the Sheetla Mata Temple.
In the memorandum, the Samiti stated, “it was in October 2017 that you promised that no fresh meat sale licences will be issued in respect of Sheetla Mata Temple and Guru Dronacharya. We want this application process cancelled. In addition, all current meat shops should be moved out of the 10 km perimeter of the Sheetla Mata temple, and existing illegal shops closed.”
The Samiti asserts that the Sheetla Mata temple is a respected site for the residents of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan and therefore the area in the vicinity should be meat-free. “A separate market or area should be earmarked for registered legal sale and illegal shops should be shut. This is non-negotiable and the CM himself had announced it. We will not accept this (issuance of licences) lying down,” said Mahaveer Bhardwaj, the chairman of the Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti.
There are 1,500 unregistered meat vendors in Gurugram compared to 119 regulated ones. There haven’t been any new licences granted in a while. If the Gurugram Municipal Corporation decides to forward with the procedure, the Samiti has warned to protest against the move.
