Kanpur in meat crisis as supply suspended from Unnao abattoirs

The abattoirs in Unnao were “slaughtering more animals for local consumption”, according to a pollution control board official. As such, the supply to 245 licenced shops in Kanpur has been suspended for the time being

For the past three days, the daily supply of about 15 tonnes of buffalo meat from Unnao abattoirs to Kanpur has been suspended in the wake of a recent letter written by the State Pollution Control Board to all divisional commissioners in the state.

(HT File)

In the letter, a copy of which is with the HT, the board’s chief environment officer, also the nodal officer for private slaughterhouses/meat processors, Ghanshyam argued that slaughterhouses were 100 per cent export units, meaning they could supply meat only to licenced shops in other towns and states.

However, the four abattoirs in Unnao were “slaughtering more animals for local consumption”. As such, the supply to 245 licenced shops in Kanpur has been suspended for the time being. The ‘meat crisis’ has led to the closure of many shops, and its impact is being felt by a significant portion of the population for whom buffalo meat constitutes a vital component of their staple.

Unnao district magistrate Vishakh G Iyer, meanwhile, said the abattoirs with a proper licence would be asked to resume their operation. “The [Pollution Control Board] order was issued to weed out people selling buffalo meat without a licence.”

Since 2017, Kanpur has been getting a significant amount of its meat requirement from the four export units in Unnao. The newly-elected government had then banned the slaughtering of animals in the open. At the same time, the Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) shut down the sole slaughterhouse in the city, located at Bakar Mandi, in the name of modernising it.

Shahr Qazi (Deobandi) Abdus Quddus Hadi, who’s also the co-convener of Jamiat Ulema, Hind, recently met the Kanpur district magistrate to seek his intervention on the issue. “Our demand is that the only slaughterhouse in Kanpur be opened again. The KMC hasn’t fulfilled its six-year-old promise of opening a modern slaughterhouse,” he said, adding that the government slaughterhouses in Agra and Bareilly were upgraded and being used effectively.

The chairman of Quraishi Biradari Gufran Ahmed ‘Chand’, meanwhile, said he and the Shahr Qazi would be calling on the pollution control board authorities requesting them to revoke the order. “Those complying with the rules and norms should not be made to suffer,” he remarked.