Banning non-vegetarian food in office canteens has made it to headlines a couple of times in the past. This time the Jammu government of the newly formed UT of J&K, imposed a new ban that might not go down well with the Babus (office workers). The government ordered a ban on the non-vegetarian food menu in the Civil Secretariat, which served scrumptious Kebabs to visitors and especially the Babus.
This ban was imposed to maintain the sanctity of the Bua Datti temple located inside the Secretariat premises. Before the 'only vegetarian food policy' was imposed, the delivery staff ran errands between office chambers of senior officers and JKTDC canteen, located inside the Secretariat, to deliver Kebabs and other preferred non-veg food. Talking about the location, the canteen that serves these Kebabas happens to be adjacent to Bua Datti Temple.
Unnecessary controversy
According to the officials of the civil secretariat, the matter is an unnecessary controversy that should be ignored at the moment as there are bigger issues to be addressed post the UT Jammu and Kashmir being newly formed. The ban is not going down too well with the regular consumers of the canteen as well.
One of the regular visitors said that the canteen was known for its scrumptious food especially the kebabs and the officials regularly indulged in food at the canteen after a long day of work and a plate of kebab was all you needed. Another civil secretariat source said that they usually ordered from the canteen according to their preferences as nonveg has never been a problem for the temple visitors.
On speaking about the Bua Datti temple's location, the official said if the temple was the issue, the delivery boy could have been told to avoid the temple route and take an alternative way to deliver the food to the officials. The temple is approximately 200-years-old which is located on the premises of the civil secretariat. It is mostly the MLAs and government officials who live in the vicinity of the temple.
