The Uttarakhand government on Wednesday issued an order to make Haridwar district slaughterhouse free. The order issued by Shailesh Bagoli, secretary (urban development) mentions that permission granted in past to operate slaughterhouse in any urban body in the district now stands cancelled.
With this order, anyone found slaughtering animal in local urban body area or anywhere in the district could be booked under the law.
According to 2011 census, Haridwar district has 18.9 lakh population and out of which 6.73 lakh are minorities. This roughly translates to about 36 percent of total population. Besides Haridwar which is the epicentre of the ongoing Kumbh Mela celebrations, the towns like Laksar, Mangalore, Bahadarabad, Jhabrera have sizeable Muslim population.
The ruling BJP expressed satisfaction with the fresh order. Party’s state spokesperson Vinay Goel said it was long awaited order which perfectly gels with the sentiments of the millions of people.
“Haridwar is known for Ganga and religion. The slaughterhouse goes against the ethos of Haridwar therefore the order came and we welcome it”, Goel told News18. When asked whether the move will polarise votes in the ‘politically sensitive’ district, the BJP leader said “party doesn’t care about the gains and losses”.
In the 2017 assembly polls, the ruling BJP won eight out of eleven assembly seats in the district. Three Congress candidates including two Muslims then managed to win respective seats. The prominent Congress leaders meanwhile refrained from immediately commenting on the fresh order.