Police in Dadri and Greater Noida have asked the local restaurant owners to not serve non-vegetarian food due to the ongoing kanwar yatra, the annual pilgrimage of Lord Shiva devotees.
A report in The Times of India says that the measures have been put in place as the number of yatris going from Greater Noida to Haridwar has increased. Kanwarias have been booked for vandalism and hooliganism in the past.
Ram Sen Singh, the SHO at Dadri, told the newspaper that vendors serving non-vegetarian food have also been removed and that non-vegetarian food will be off limits till the “religious season” was on. Police reportedly did an inspection of the roadside dhabas in the area on Wednesday evening, asking the ones serving non-vegetarian food to be shut for a week. The report says that joints serving fish, chicken and eggs in the area have been shut while the ones serving vegetarian food continue with their operations.
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The Uttar Pradesh government had already declared a high alert in the state after the terror attack on Amarnath pilgrims in Kashmir and the police has been directed to be extra vigilant during the yatra, Ghaziabad city SP (superintendent of police), Akash Tomar had said.
Quick response teams have also been formed to deal with contingencies, he said.
Commandos, SWAT teams, and bomb disposal squads, equipped with sophisticated automatic weapons, have been deployed along with sniffer dogs, Tomar said.
The SP said security has been tightened as the number of Kanwarias has swelled considerably.
With Agency Inputs
