Ministry Gets Letter Seeking Complete Ban On Serving Non-Veg Food In Domestic Flights

Days after a Jain passenger was accidentally served non-veg food onboard an Air India flight, the Gujarat Animal Welfare Board and the Jain community have written to civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, seeking a ban on serving such meals on domestic flights.

¡°This request is being made on behalf of vegetarian passengers...Strictly vegetarian passengers feel much more distressed and offended when non-veg food is served instead of veg food,¡± board member Rajendra Shah said in the letter.

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Interestingly, the group has demanded a ban on non-veg food on domestic flights, for an incident that happened on an international route.

Accidently served non-veg meal

Taking to Twitter recently, a passenger Raghavendra Jain had claimed that he traveled with family from Tokyo to Delhi on March 25th on an Air India flight.

The Twitter user said that he had pre-booked vegetarian meals and had confirmed them at the check-in counter. Despite this, the staff gave him a non-vegetarian meal.

Jain also alleged that despite him asking the staff to check, two crew members casually ¡®verified¡¯ the meal type and reassured him that it was in fact vegetarian meal.

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He further alleged that the crew harassed them throughout the flight and that they did not even apolgise for the mistake.

Following the incident, two cabin crew members of Air India's Tokyo-Delhi flight were grounded and initiated a probe into this incident.

Food policing back in focus

The letter comes at a time when the meat ban in Delhi has reignited the debate on food policing.

South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) had earlier this week ordered that meat shops under the civic body's limits should remain close during the nine days of Navratri.

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¡°All the shops will be kept shut without any exception. I have issued direction to the commissioner that open display of meat is hurting the religious beliefs, and he will take further action,¡±

He then went on to make bizarre claims like 99% per cent of Delhi households don't even eat onion or garlic during Navratri, to justify the ban on the sale of meat.

On Tuesday, Shyam Sunder Aggarwal, mayor of East Delhi also backed the meat ban during Navratri.

"I have appealed to all meat sellers to understand Hindu sentiments and close their shops on those days," Agarwal told news agency ANI while asserting that as of now it is an appeal.

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Similarly, in neighbouring Ghaziabad, mayor Asha Sharma had directed owners to shut meat shops during the Navratri festival.

¡°Raw meat cannot be sold in the vicinity of the temple,¡± Sharma said.

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