The police in several districts in Uttar Pradesh have said that no prayers will be permitted on the streets during the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Fitr, The Indian Express reported.

The festival, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramzan, will be celebrated on Monday.

In Meerut, police said on Wednesday that violators will face legal action if found praying on the streets, which could lead to criminal cases, and the cancellation of passports and driving licences, The Indian Express reported.

“We have appealed to people that they offer namaz at a nearby mosque or reach the eidgahs on time,” the newspaper quoted Meerut City Superintendent of Police Ayush Vikram Singh as saying. “We have given strict instructions that under no condition will prayers be allowed on roads.”

Eidgahs are open-air enclosures reserved for Eid prayers that are usually situated outside a city or in its outskirts.

The police also submitted a list of eight persons to the district magistrate for allegedly violating a similar order issued last year prohibiting prayers on the streets during the festival. Steps have been taken for the cancellation of their driving licences and passports, The Indian Express reported.

“We registered an FIR [first information report] against them,” the newspaper quoted Singh as saying. “This time too if someone sits for prayers in the open, very strict action will be taken. We are making continuous appeals.”

If a criminal case is registered against a person, it could lead to the cancellation of their driving licence and passport, Singh said. Those booked will not be given a no-objection certificate to apply for these documents, he added.

Commenting on the restrictions on social media, Union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Singh Chaudhary said: “Policing towards Orwellian 1984!”.

He was referring to George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh.

On Wednesday, the Sambhal Police also said that prayers for Eid-ul-Fitr and Alvida Jummah will be permitted only inside mosques or eidgahs and not on streets or rooftops.

Alvida Jummah, or the last Friday of Ramzan, is on March 28.

The permission for the use of loudspeakers during the festivals was also not granted, the police added.

Sambhal was the site of the violence that broke out on November 24 after a group of Muslims objected to a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Chandausi town.

A trial court had ordered the survey in a lawsuit claiming that the mosque had been built in 1526 by Mughal ruler Babar on the site of the “centuries-old Shri Hari Har Temple dedicated to Lord Kalki”.

Five persons were killed in the violence during the survey.

In Aligarh, Superintendent of Police Mriganik Shekhar Pathak said that there was no specific order regarding Eid prayers, The Indian Express reported. However, he added that an advisory issued by the state government about not permitting prayers in public places would be followed.

“A peace committee meeting was called and the advisory was conveyed to people,” Pathak added.

Hathras Superintendent of Police Chiranjeev Nath Sinha also noted that no specific order had been issued.

“We will not be allowing anyone, irrespective of community, to offer prayers on roads or in any public place,” the newspaper quoted Sinha as saying. “It is a people’s festival and they can celebrate in their house.”

The police in Ghaziabad said that the public would be asked to offer prayers in shifts if there was crowding.

“We have deployed forces in all sensitive areas and near mosques and the eidgah,” Dasarath Nimish Patil, the Trans-Hindon deputy police commissioner, said. “There will be continuous surveillance by drones.”

Sambhal MP Zia Ur Rehman Barq, who belongs to the Opposition Samajwadi Party, also criticised the orders, saying that the BJP government did not want Muslims to offer prayers, Deccan Herald reported.