Meat shops in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad will remain open as usual on August 15 and 16, as neither the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) nor the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has ordered their closure on account of Independence Day and Janmashtami.
This comes amid a state-wide controversy after some municipal corporations, like Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Malegaon and Nagpur, ordered their closure.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray had slammed the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) Commissioner and called for his suspension for directing the closure of meat shops.
"The Commissioner of Kalyan-Dombivli should be suspended. I don't know who he is. What we eat on Independence Day is our right, our freedom. They cannot tell us whether to eat veg or non-veg. We will definitely eat non-veg. We eat it in our house. In our house, even on Navratri, our prasad has prawns, fish, because this is our tradition, this is our Hinduism... This is not a matter of religion, and it is not a matter of national interest," the Worli MLA said.
Thackeray reiterated the same in a post on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “What we eat on Independence Day is our choice. The Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Commissioner has NO right to interfere, and that diktat won’t be followed! Instead of imposing vegetarianism on the citizens, focus on improving the terrible roads and broken civic services. Citizens will eat whatever they want to — vegetarian or non-vegetarian.”
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar also objected to the ban. "It is wrong to impose such a ban. In major cities, people of different castes and religions reside. If it is an emotional issue, then people accept it (ban) for a day. But if you clamp such orders on Maharashtra Day, Independence Day and Republic Day, then it is difficult," Pawar said.
