New Delhi: The district administration of Koraput, Odisha, issued an order on Sunday (January 25) revoking its initial ban – imposed on Friday, January 23 – on the sale of non-vegetarian food on Republic Day in the district. This instruction (to ban the sale of non-vegetarian food on Republic Day) was “issued purely on the suggestion of the District Level Republic Day Preparatory Committee”, an official letter signed by the district collector and district magistrate Manoj Satyawan Mahajan revoking the initial order on January 25 read. “Now, after due consideration, the aforesaid Letter No, 93 dated 23.01.2026 is hereby revoked with immediate effect,” the order read. Mahajan had, in an earlier letter dated January 23, instructed all officials under him to issue “official notifications” in their jurisdictions prohibiting the sale of meat, chicken, fish, egg and other non-vegetarian food items on January 26 “for the occasion of 77th Republic Day Celebration in Koraput District”. The letter, addressed to all tahsildars, block development officers and executive officers of Koraput district had called for their “prompt action” in this regard. The Indian Express quoted unnamed officials as saying that during a preparatory meeting, some people had flagged the sale of non-vegetarian food items in major urban areas at a time when students participate in patriotic march-pasts.The controversial order drew a lot of criticism and backlash.“Neither the Collector & District Magistrate of Koraput, nor his officers, has any statutory powers to impose a ban on non-vegetarian food on Republic Day (26 January),” M. Nageswara Rao, a retired IPS officer and a former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation said in a social media post on X. “This constitutes a clear case of jurisdictional overreach. Moreover, what possible connection exists between celebrating Republic Day and enforcing vegetarianism that could justify banning non-vegetarian food? This raises serious concerns of legality, jurisdictional overreach, and ethics,” he added.Saptagiri Ulaka, a Member of Parliament from Koraput constituency and Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj had called the ban on sale of non-vegetarian food “arbitrary, exclusionary, unconstitutional”. “An elected Republic cannot honour the Constitution by curbing constitutional freedoms…What was the necessity, Why single out a tribal dominated, culturally diverse district?” he asked in a social media post on X.Per the 2011 Census, Koraput is predominantly a tribal district: half its population are Scheduled Tribes (50.6%). Members of the Scheduled Caste comprise 14.2% of the total population in the district.