NEW DELHI: Restaurants and shops in south Delhi will now have to display whether the meat being sold or served is cut using the halal or jhatka method. The BJP-led South Delhi Municipal Corporation has cleared a proposal making such display mandatory, officials said on Thursday.
The proposal, moved by the Standing Committee of the SDMC on December 24, was cleared was the House on Wednesday, a senior official of the civic body said. South Delhi has a number of eateries, restaurants and streetside shops selling or serving non-vegetarian food items, prominent places being markers at Defence Colony, Amar Colony, Sarojini Nagar, South Extension, and INA.
According to officials, restaurants and meat shops will now have to “display clearly and visibly” whether they are serving halal or jhatka. The resolution passed by the SDMC panel had read, “There are thousands of restaurants in 104 wards of four zones falling under SDMC. Out of these meat is served in about 90 per cent of restaurants but it is not mentioned whether the meat being served by the restaurants is halal or jhatka. Similarly, the meat shops also do not make the distinction.”
The resolution further said, “According to Hinduism and Sikhism, eating halal meat is forbidden and against religion... Therefore, the committee resolves that this direction be given to restaurants and meat shops that it should be written mandatorily about the meat being sold and served by them that halal or jhatka meat is available here”. However, several meat shops or restaurant owners have called the step ‘unnecessary’ and ‘regressive’.