Mahakumbh: PNN launches drive to permanently ban meat sale around Mela area

There are still some three months to go for Mahakumbh-2025 to begin in Prayagraj but the Prayagraj Nagar Nigam (PNN) has begun implementing a ban on the sale of meat and liquor within the traditional boundaries of Prayagraj.
The move follows orders by chief minister Yogi Adityanath to strictly enforce a ban on the sale of meat and liquor within the traditional boundaries of the Mela area. While the orders from the administration are awaited defining the boundaries of the Mela area, PNN has gone ahead and launched a drive against the sale of meat and liquor, in line with an order passed at a PNN House meeting, taken a year ago.
On Wednesday, a PNN team closed 12 shops selling meat and fish at Madhwapur which falls within that area. PNN officials said eight shops of fish and four of meat were closed and their owners were issued a warning.
PNN chief veterinary officer Dr Vijay Amritraj said some meat shop owners at Madhwapur had earlier been fined but they were still running the shops following which action to remove them was taken on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, PNN officials said that a meeting was held on Monday and fresh plans have been chalked out to ensure a complete ban on the sale of meat within 500 meters around the Mela area along with all bathing ghats in the city. The ban on sale of meat may also be extended to localities which are on the banks of the Ganga and Yamuna, the officials said, adding a proposal for the ban had been passed at a PNN meeting, a year ago.
They said that the enforcement of the proposal for permanently banning the sale of meat within 500 meters of the Mela area took time as proposals cannot be implemented soon after the House meeting. The order was passed and was signed by the authorities concerned before it was first brought to public notice a month back.
Dr Amritraj said that the order for closure of meat shops issued a year earlier, categorically called for the permanent ban on the sale of meat within 500-meter radius of the Mela area.
He said action in this direction started soon after the proposal was passed and some meat shops at Alopibagh and other places close to Sangam were closed around a month back. However, after the recent orders of the CM, a rigorous drive has been launched to identify meat shops within 500 meters of the Mela area – which includes Sangam area, Naini, Jhunsi, Parade, Daraganj, Arail and Phaphamau.
However, officials said that they were yet to receive the orders from the administration defining the boundaries where the ban is to be enforced.
Dr Amritraj also said that the PNN will seek the help of the food and safety department to ensure a complete ban on sale of meat within the stipulated area.
Shopkeepers bemoan action
Among those whose shops and kiosks were removed from Madhwapur by the PNN team on Wednesday, include Daraganj resident Bablu Nishad.
Bemoaning the action, Bablu said that selling fish was his ancestral profession. He has been selling fish at Madhwapur market for the past 25 years. “It is going to be difficult for me and others to start business afresh at any other place. The customers who have been loyal to me all these years, will not follow me to another place far from here,” he said.
Another fish seller, Rajan claimed that the action was taken all of a sudden and “no time was given to us to find a suitable place to sell fish.” He said that there are a large number of customers in the area who regularly purchase fish and chicken from them.