Make owners display their names outside shops: BJP MLA to MP govt amid row in UP

A BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday, 20 July, urged the state government to make it mandatory for all shopkeepers to display their names outside their shops, a demand coming in the wake of a controversy over the Uttar Pradesh government's order to all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their owners' names.

BJP MLA from Indore-2 Assembly seat Ramesh Mendola wrote a letter in this regard to chief minister Mohan Yadav.

"The name of any person is his identity. A person is proud of his name. Asking for the name is the customer's right and the shopkeeper should be proud to tell his name, not be ashamed," he said.

Mendola, a four-time MLA, said that every small and big trader, all businessmen and shopkeepers of Madhya Pradesh can feel this sense of pride in telling their names.

"I have written a letter to the chief minister and requested him to issue an order mandating the shopkeepers to display their own name in front of every shop in Madhya Pradesh. I urge the government to frame rules in this regard," the legislator said.

Days after the police in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar asked all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their owners' names, the UP government on Friday extended the controversial order across the state, while Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said similar instructions are already in place there.

The order has been slammed by the opposition parties and some members of the ruling alliance, who say it targets Muslim traders.