Vadodara Deputy Mayor Sends Notification To Cover Non-Vegetarian Food After Residents Complain Of 'Itchy Eyes'

Vadodara Deputy Mayor Nandaben Joshi received complaints about women and children's eyes itching while passing by street vendors who sell non-vegetarian food

New Delhi: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation on Friday issued a notification to restrict the public display of all non-vegetarian food sold at the street food stalls or restaurants.

According to ANI, the Vadodara Deputy Mayor Nandaben Joshi received 'complaints about women and children's eyes itching while passing by street vendors who sell non-vegetarian food' following which she conducted a meeting with the ward office decided to start the practice of covering food with proper hygiene. 

Vadodara | On complaints of women & children about eyes itching while passing by street vendors cooking non-veg food openly, the Mayor has decided to convene a meeting with ward offices to start the practice of covering food with proper hygiene: Deputy Mayor Nandaben Joshi pic.twitter.com/5BQGKgLuXZ

— ANI (@ANI) November 13, 2021

"People complain us that non-vegetarian food in open seems very unhygienic. So the corporation issued the notification to prohibit the public display of non-vegetarian food. All the food stalls and restaurants have been instructed to cover the non-veg food properly. They also need to ensure that the food is not visible to anyone passing by," she further said.

Revenue minister Rajendra Trivedi welcomed the move was quoted by HT as saying, “The smoke and smell emanating from these non-vegetarian stalls is a health hazard for passers-by.”

Hitendra Patel, the standing committee chairman of Vadodara Municipal Corporation on Thursday told the civic body that shops should be removed if the vendors didn't cover their food with 15 days. He added, according to HT, “The public display of meat, fish, eggs hurts religious sentiments. It should not be visible,” Patel said on Friday, adding that the practise might have continued for decades but now it was time to put a stop to it.

A similar decision was taken by Rajkot Municipal Corporation, according to November 9, they conducted a drive to take away handcarts and cabins selling eggs and other non-vegetarian food as part of which civic officials removed outlets in Fulchhab Chowk, Limbda Chowk and Shashtri Maidan, reported Indian Express. 

According to Rajkot's mayor, Pradip Dav said the drive was to remove “encroachments” from main roads. “We are removing encroachments from main roads and squares… and not just joints selling non-vegetarian food… they cause nuisance, creating hurdles to vehicular traffic and also offending religious sentiments of those following Hinduism. They can do their business but at a proper place. It can’t be in residential areas on main roads…,” Dav told The Indian Express, adding, “We have also asked meat sellers in Sadar area not to display their products publicly as it offends passersby.”

According to Scroll, the Rajkot Municipal Commissioner Amit Arora said that there was no specific directive about vendors selling meat dishes. “We remove all kinds of encroachments specifically where we get complaints of encroachments,” he added.