Delhi civic body’s vet dept issues closure notices to CR Park fish market

According to meat policy of the municipal corporation, no licence can be issued to open platforms for selling fish or meat. Similar notices were issued to the fish market in April as well, and officials back then had clarified that the notices were not linked to the purported “meat ban” during the spring Navratri festivities.

Citing that meat and fish shops are being run without licences on open platforms, the veterinary department of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Thursday issued show-cause notices to close the meat and fish market in south Delhi’s Chittaranjan Park (CR Park).

A veterinary department official on Thursday said 12 notices have been issued in CR Park while 22 such notices were issued in Dabri open platform market last month. (Shankar Narayan/HT file photo. Representative image)

According to meat policy of the municipal corporation, no licence can be issued to open platforms for selling fish or meat. Similar notices were issued to the fish market in April as well, and officials back then had clarified that the notices were not linked to the purported “meat ban” during the spring Navratri festivities.

A veterinary department official on Thursday said 12 notices have been issued in CR Park while 22 such notices were issued in Dabri open platform market last month. One such closure notice, issued by the veterinary inspector on June 9, 2022, to a CR Park trader reads: “It is informed that as per meat shop licensing policy approved by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation...no person shall sale the meat at his shop without valid licence... whereas it is noticed that you are selling the fish/meat on the open platform in CR Park market which is against the meat shop licensing policy. You are hereby served this notice to close down the sale of the meat/fish from above thara/platform immediately.”

The notices direct the shop owners to submit a reply in the form of a undertaking that they have closed the trade, failing which action will be initiated against them as per the provisions of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act and FIRs may also be lodged against them.

Vendors said they have been operating from open platforms since the past several decades and they will appropriately respond to the MCD notices. “Officials from the corporation came on Thursday to check our allotment papers and licences. The (market) association will respond appropriately,” a vendor representative said.

“There are some platforms near CR Park Market No.1 from where vendors are selling fish and, according to these vendors, they were allotted platforms by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for conducting their business. But according to the MCD, no licence can be issued to open platforms for selling fish. They can’t sell fish without a licence and,hence, they have been issued notices,” an MCD official said, asking not to be named.

The contradiction in the DDA allotment and the corporation’s meat policy is likely to affect more shops in the coming days, traders fear. DDA could not be reached for comment. in the matter