Eat vegetarian during Holi, chief of TMC-ruled Nabadwip Municipality urges residents

Nabadwip (WB), Mar 11 (PTI) The chairman of the Nabadwip municipal body in West Bengal's Nadia has appealed to residents of the town to consume vegetarian food for three days during Holi, popularly known as 'Dol Utsav' here.

Maintaining that tourists and devotees from all over the world visit Nabadwip, the birthplace of Vaishnava saint and an important figure of the Bhakti movement, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the town's municipal body chairman Biman Kumar Saha urged all concerned to ensure that non-vegetarian food is not sold or cooked during the festival.

"We have appealed to people to eat vegetarian food for three days from March 13 for maintaining the sanctity of the pilgrimage town during ‘Dol Utsav’," he said.

He also said this should not be considered an order, but only an appeal to those living in Nabadwip.

"We had a meeting on Monday... the meat and fish sellers have spontaneously decided to keep the shops closed during the period," Saha, a leader of the ruling Trinamool Congress, said.

Saha said there are around 200 fish sellers and 45 bird and animal meat sellers in Nabadwip.

He said witnessing carcasses of animals and fish for sale would not be a welcome sight for the visitors to the town, situated around 125 km from Kolkata, during the Holi festival.

There are around 200 Vaishnavite matts in Nabadwip, according to sources. PTI CORR AMR RBT