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Halt entry of unlabelled meat into J&K: Hotel & restaurants body
A prominent body of hoteliers of Jammu and Kashmir, J&K Hotel and Restaurant Association (JKHARA), on Saturday demanded a halt on the entry of unlabelled and unbranded frozen meat into the union territory.
A prominent body of hoteliers of Jammu and Kashmir, J&K Hotel and Restaurant Association (JKHARA), on Saturday demanded a halt on the entry of unlabelled and unbranded frozen meat into the union territory.
Addressing a press conference, the office-bearers of the association said that they have urged the J&K government to establish two check posts immediately at entry points into Kashmir and Jammu, and any unlabelled meat should be stopped there.
“It is a matter of people’s health. We have appealed to the government that all the unbranded and unlabeled frozen meat and chicken coming from outside should be stopped at Lakhanpur or Qazigund (entry points into Jammu and Kashmir divisions),” said president KHARA, Babar Chowdhary.
Since the beginning of August, Kashmir has been rattled by a series of seizures and confiscation of hundreds of kilograms of rotten, unsafe or stale meat or its products meant to be distributed to various eateries of the valley.
The confiscation of the meat by authorities was triggered when the Food Safety Department, Srinagar, in coordination with the Drug and Food Control Organisation (DFCO), found quintals of decayed meat from an industrial estate in Zakoora on the outskirts of Srinagar on July 31.
Choudhary said that some people are acquiring suspicious meat at very low rates from outside the states and sought action against those people.
“There are big companies who send their products here. However, there are surprisingly some people who, according to an interview, bring meat at ₹160 per kg from some outside state. For God sake please tell us how is that possible when we have meat here at ₹700 per kg. Then there are profit margins, transportation charges, abnormal losses and GST, so then what actually they (vendors bringing unlabeled meat from outside) are buying and at what rate. Why haven’t action been taken so far is because they would not label the packages,” he said.
Jammu and Kashmir police have intensified raids on vendors selling unhygienic meat across Srinagar while also identifying the operators of the firm after one of the biggest hauls of rotten meat was seized in the city’s Zakoora on July 31.
The Srinagar police has filed a case in Zakoora incident under sections of 271, 275 and 61(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), dealing with selling of noxious food and negligence to cause diseases.
The JKHARA, during a meeting with minister Satish Sharma, demanded the government to intensify market checkings.
“Our second demand to the government is that the food department should intensify their checkings and those people or establishments involved in this and using this meat should be exposed before the public. This should not make those people who are legally doing the business,” Choudhary said.
He said that the government has responded on a positive note and accepted both the things. “We have also suggested to the government that there should be intensified checking of street food vendors and local dhabas selling wazwan. Because we have observed that most of this (suspicious) meat supply has happened through street vendors in the market,” he claimed.
Chief minister Omar Abdullah chaired a high level meeting on the issue on Monday where he vowed exemplary punitive action against those found storing or selling unsafe food and for criminal proceedings against the most serious violators.
