A Hindu outfit in West Bengal has written to the state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee requesting her to ban slaughtering of cows and sale of beef in the state for four days during the Durga Puja celebrations.

Hindu Samhati wants the state government to ban sale of beef across the state from 19 October to 22 October "during the auspicious occasion of the Durga Puja so that religious sentiments of Hindus does not get hurt."

The letter, signed by Hindu Samhati Secretary Debtanu Bhattacharya, has further said that Hindus have cooperated with Muslims during their festivals in the past and now wants Muslims to reciprocate Durga Puja, a big festival in West Bengal.

"You must have remembered that last year the date of Visarjana was altered by your government as it coincided with the Eid – a festival of Muslims. This year too, the traditional route of ISKCON Rath Yatra was altered as that coincided with Muharram – another Muslim festival. Hindus, on both occasions cooperated with Muslims as well as administration to honour religious fraternity," the letter read.

The outfit requested the Mamata Banerjee government to act immediately to avoid miscommunication between the communities.

"I request you to initiate necessary action towards implementation of the proposal with immediate effect to avoid the scope of miscommunication among concerned communities which may jeopardize communal fabric of our state," the letter said.

Recently, India has witnessed a surge in ban on meat and beef across various states in view of festivals. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) ban on sale of meat in Mumbai during Jain's Paryushana Parva had triggered outrage among netizens who strongly opposed the move.

The ban on meat sale in Mumbai was, however, lifted after the Bombay High Court's intervention. The state government's two-day ban was also later stayed by the High Court.

A similar ban on sale of meat during the Jain festival (on Thursday) was imposed in Patiala, Punjab. Later, the Punjab government extended the ban to Ludhiana in view of Ganesh Chaturthi.

The Indore Municipal Corporation has already banned the sale of meat on 17 September for Ganesh Chaturthi, on 18 September for Paryushan Parva or Samvatsari and 27 September for Anant Chaturdashi. 

The Haryana governmet too had banned sale of meat from 11 to 19 September; however, it later claimed that it was just an appeal.

Similarly, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the Bengaluru civic body, has issued a circular banning sale of meat and slaughtering of animals in the city on Ganesh Chaturthi. However, this has been contested by a state government minister, Dinesh Gundu Rao, who has said that the circular 'will not be binding in Karnataka.'

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