PATNA, Feb. 23 -- Barely a week after announcing a statewide ban on meat, fish and poultry from unlicensed outlets, Bihar deputy chief minister Vijay Kumar Sinha - who also looks after urban development - said on Monday that city and town bodies have now been told to shut down such shops operating near schools, temples and other crowded public places.

Sinha, speaking to journalists just a day earlier, had gone a step further, linking open sale and consumption of non-vegetarian food to "violent tendencies" among young people and children.

As announced, principal secretary of the urban development and housing department, Vinay Kumar, on Saturday sent letters to all municipal commissioners, executive officers of nagar parishads and nagar p...