Arunachal: Naharlagun puts in abeyance order to remove “beef” word from eatery hoardings

Executive Magistrate of Naharlagun sub-division of Arunachal Pradesh today kept in abeyance an order to restaurants and hotels to remove the word “beef” from their hoardings by July 18. 

EM Tamo Dada, issuing a communique today, said that this has been done keeping in view requests “from various quarters for extension of timeline for compliance.” 

Yesterday, restaurant owners in Arunachal Pradesh’s Naharlagun sub-were asked to remove signboards and hoardings with the word “beef” written on them “to continue the spirit of secularism and brotherhood within the community.”

Tamo Dada, the Executive Magistrate of Naharlagun, issuing a notice to this effect, said that failure to remove the “beef” from signboards would attract a fine of Rs 2,000.

“District administration of ICR believes in the secular spirit of our Indian constitution but such open display of word beef on the signboards of such hotels and restaurants may hurt the sentiments of some sections of the community and may create animosity between different groups of the community,” Tamo Dada had stated in his communique.

Hindus believe that the cow is representative of divine and natural beneficence and should therefore be protected.
Notably, this directive has been issued by Arunachal months after Assam, its neighbor to the East, passed a bill to protect the bovine animal.

The new legislation prohibits the sale and purchase of beef in areas inhabited by non-beef eating communities and within a 5-km radius of a temple or a satra (as Vaishnavite monasteries are called).

As per the 2011 status, Hindus make up 29.04% of the population in Arunachal which is second only to Christianity (30.26%).