Mayor to assess if Delhi's new slaughterhouse hygienic

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SME Times News Bureau | 29 Oct, 2009
After a week-long protest by the capital's meat traders on the closure of the centuries-old Idgah abattoir, Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain is going to visit the new slaughterhouse to address the grievances of the traders and check hygiene conditions there.

"I will be visiting the Ghazipur slaughter house Friday or Monday and will look into whether the allegations by the meat traders, that the landfill site nearby results in unhygienic conditions, is true," Sain told IANS.

The centuries-old abattoir near the walled city was closed down Oct 22 after a five-year legal battle between the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the meat traders association.

Following a Supreme Court order Wednesday, MCD will have to completely close the Idgah abattoir and shift all operations to the new facility. The facility's last operating 'halal' section will be shut Friday.

The new slaughterhouse built in Ghazipur, east Delhi, is high tech, but has been criticized because it is next to a sanitary landfill site and a stinking drain.

A delegation of meat traders had met Sain Wednesday and requested him to inspect the Ghazipur slaughter house, which they alleged, lacks adequate facilities and is "unhygienic".

While the mayor has agreed to assess the hygiene situation, he said that the traders claim that the new facility could not meet the demand of 10,000 animals for meat in the capital, was baseless.

Chicken prices have shot up and meat supply tumbled as butchers closed their shops, refusing to move to Ghazipur.

Traders associations, meanwhile, continued their stir for the seventh consecutive day, but changed their stand saying that "there was no strike".

"Till now there was no supply of meat so we had closed our shops. We were not on a strike and we are not planning one in the future," Mohammad Aqil Qureshi, president, Delhi Meat Traders Association told IANS.

Qureshi, however, maintained that there would be "no cooperation to the Ghazipur slaughter house".

He said: "We will manage our business by getting meat from the areas around Delhi like Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Meerut etc. We get it at Rs.220 and sell it at Rs.250. We have mouths to feed so we cannot afford to go on strike."

Several meat traders and distributors are based at Idgah near Paharganj and feel the shift would mean uprooting their livelihood. Others have also voiced discontent that the new facility costs double for services.