For hygienic meat, corporations to come up with revised policy

To ensure that hygienic meat reaches consumers, the city's three municipal corporations will come up with a revised meat policy to grant licences. Hamari Jamatia reports.

To ensure that hygienic meat reaches consumers, the city's three municipal corporations will come up with a revised meat policy to grant licences.

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The new policy will incorporate clauses such as fly trapping units and proper waste bins to prevent contamination and a ban on slaughtering poultry in open areas.

The existing policy does not have any provision to take action against people slaughtering poultry in open areas.

According to sources, there are hundreds of illegal butcher shops in the city that are operating without any licences. Once the policy comes to force, illegal shops will be shut unless they make required changes and apply for licences.

Last week, the South Corporation formed a three-member committee to oversee the formulation of the meat policy. Apart from ensuring cleanliness in butcher shops, the committee will also try to remove provisions in the existing policy that butchers term as 'too strict'.

The MCD had in 2011 come up with a new policy for granting and renewing licences to meat shops. The meat traders, however, said that some of the clauses were too strict to follow. The policy requires traders to get no-objection certificates (NOC) from property-owners as well as the local police which they claim, leads to a lot of harassment at the hands of the two authorities.

"A large number of meat shops are flourishing in Delhi, causing unhygienic conditions in the area and loss of revenue to the corporations," said an official.

With the meat merchant associations complaining about the policy, the director of veterinary services held meetings at the zonal level and drafted the new 'meat shop licensing policy'.

The committee set up by the South Corporation will incorporate the necessary changes and submit the revised policy for approval.