Cops ask owners to put their names on eateries along Kanwar Yatra route

Lucknow: Police in Uttar Pradesh's communally sensitive Muzaffarnagar district have asked the owners of the eateries on the 'Kanwar Yatra route' to mention their names on the eateries to "avoid any confusion" among the 'kanwariyas' (Hindu devotees who collect waters from the sacred Ganga river and offer the same at Shiva temples during the Shravan month).

Although the police said that the directive was meant to prevent 'controversy' and 'tension', it was perceived to be aimed at the Muslim community, who allegedly operate eateries on the 'kanwar yatra' route named after Hindu gods.

BJP MLA from Muzaffarnagar Kapil Deo Agarwal and another MLA from Ghaziabad Nand Kishore Gujjar had claimed that many eateries named after Hindu gods along the kanwar yatra route were operated by Muslims and demanded that they must either be closed or their owners be directed to mention their names.

"The directive applies to the hotels, dhabas and also roadside eateries," said a senior police official in Muzaffarnagar.

Police sources said that hiding the identity of the eatery owners might create a law and order situation as the 'kanwariyas' who stop on the way and have food at these eateries might get violent if the true identity of the owners was revealed.

Thousands of 'kanwariyas' from Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and different parts of UP pass through Muzaffarnagar to take the waters of the Ganga for offerings at the Shiva temples.

Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav slammed the directive and said that courts should take suo motu cognisance of the order and act against the Yogi Adityanath administration.

"What happens if the names of the eateries are Guddu, Munna, Chotu or Fatte....what do their names reveal?," Akhilesh said in a post on 'X' (formerly Twitter).