AVM seeks ban on meat, tobacco in walled city

Amritsar, January 4

A city-based NGO Amritsar Vikas Manch (AVM) has demanded that the state government should ban sale of meat and tobacco products inside the walled city areas.

Dr Charanjit Singh Gumtala of the AVM said, “Around 34 years ago in 1981, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of then Deputy Commissioner Gurdev Singh Brar in which decision to shift all tobacco and meat shops out of the walled city was taken.” He said initially shops in the 300 metre periphery of Golden Temple were shifted. It was decided that within one year all shops in the walled city area would be shifted, he added.

In a letter written to government the AVM has demanded that the decision taken in 1981 should be implemented as sale of meat and use of tobacco was against religious tenants. — TNS