Ban on non-veg food in Kurukshetra: The State Imposes Dietary Restrictions

The imposition of ban on the sale of non-vegetarian items in the municipal areas of Thanesar (Kurukshetra) on Friday has started a debate over the advisability of the ban in a town whose municipal limits has been extended five times since the ban was first imposed in the year 1974.

 
The ban on these items were imposed even during the British period also as is visible from a order on a red stone observed at the holy Brahmasarovar, but it is clear that these orders were imposed only at the religious place, while now these are being extended with the extension of municipal limits quite often.

 

The ban imposed by the Deputy Commissioner has left a large number of persons involved in the business of eatables in a lurch and is causing great hardship to the non-vegetarians as well as patients. The ban orders are reported to have been issued following direction of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to the Deputy Commissioner on the basis of a PIL by one advocate to take appropriate action on his representation to DC against the sale of non-vegetarian in the town of Kurukshetra , which he claimed have been declared as ‘holy’ city.

 

It may be mentioned here that the Haryana government had declared Kurukshetra as ‘holy city’ and had shifted liquor vends and meat shops outside the extended limits of Thanesar town. However, the Motel being run by the department of Tourism, Haryana Government as well as Military canteen for ex-servicemen situated at Pipli, are allowed to sell liquor though they fall in the jurisdiction of municipal limits of Thanesar.

 

The old timers recall that initially the use of liquor and meat around the vicinity of holy Brahmasarovar and Sannehit tank were banned by the authorities. In fact an order on behalf of the Deputy Commissioner, Karnal (Kurukshetra was part of Karnal district) used to be displayed on the banks of both the holy tanks that the consumption of liquor and meat on the holy ‘tirtha’ was not allowed.

 

It was first on the recommendation of Mr. Gulzari Lal Nanda, the then union Minister and founder Chairman of Kurukshetra Development Board, that the then Chief Minister Bansi Lal announced a holy status for Kurukshetra in 1974 and the liquor vends and meat shops were shifted outside the municipal limits of Thanesar. The municipal limits at that time were just one kms in radius around the holy tanks. After about two years the municipal limits of Thanesar comprising Dara Kalan, Dara Khurd and a part of Dara Khera, were extended by including the remaining part of Dara Khera Thanesar.        

 

The municipal limits were once again extended by adding the panchayat areas of Pipli, Bir Pipli, Devi Dasspura, Ratgal, Sunderpur, Bahri and part of Mirzapur in the year 1984. With this the demand of declaring the whole town holy once again emerged and finally Mr. Bhajan Lal announced that liquor vends will be taken out of the extended limits of Thanesar. Later, in 1991, Chief Minister Bansi Lal once again announced a ban on non-veg inside the municipal limits of Thanesar.

 

Following this announcements the Excise and Taxation department shifted the liquor vends on the periphery of extended municipal limits. However, the department exempted the old panchayat limits of Pipli from this ban and the liquor vend at Pipli continued as usual because the liquor Bar of the Tourism department at Pipli restaurant had to be exempted. Later, the military canteen for the ex-service men was also exempted.

 

It is also interesting to note that there is no village or town by the name of Kurukshetra in the revenue records of Haryana and the present town of Kurukshetra is infact named as a District while Thanesar as Tehsil and Sub-Division, comprising the jurisdiction of various villages, which kept on increasing. In Puranic books, 38 ‘kose’ areas around Thanesar are referred as Kurukshetra. 

 

Though the meat slaughter shops have been shifted out side the limits of extended municipality limits but the meat and other non-veg was easily available in all the restaurants situated in the town. A student at Kurukshetra University , Subhash, described the shifting move as hypocrisy of those who hardly bother for the sanctity of the holy places but raise hue and cry for the ban just to score a point while most of them too enjoy liquor and meat. Mostly, the visitors to Brahmasarovar to attend Kurukshetra Utsav- Geeta Jayanti Samaroh created unhygienic conditions on the holy place by throwing left out eatable and packages in a scattered manner after consuming eatable, he added.

 

Dr. S.P. Singh demanded that only the area around holy tanks and shrines should be declared pious and the people drinking liquor or consuming meat must be stringently punished, rather than making a mockery for the ban in extended area. He said that the piousness of the place could not be linked with the extension of municipal limits as the towns are bound to expand with all sort of people from all walk of life with different eating habits.

 

Manjit Singh, a famous seller of non-veg items demanded that ban should be imposed in specific radius of 250 to 500 meters of holy places of Brahmasarovar and Sanehit tank as in case of Amritsar and Haridwar, where it is only in a radius of 500 meters.