JMC says don’t slaughter chicken at shops, slaughterhouses don’t have facility to slaughter birds
The Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) has recently issued a new form for those seeking to renew their licence for their meat shop or apply for a new licence. According to the new form, the person has to give an undertaking that he or she will not slaughter any animal or bird (including chicken) at the shop.
The Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) has recently issued a new form for those seeking to renew their licence for their meat shop or apply for a new licence. According to the new form, the person has to give an undertaking that he or she will not slaughter any animal or bird (including chicken) at the shop.
The rule leaves no place for meat sellers to slaughter chicken as the only slaughterhouse in Jaipur does not have the facility.
The slaughterhouse only has facility for slaughtering goats, sheep and buffaloes, said Kamlesh Meena, senior veterinary officer, JMC. He clarified that the portion about prohibiting slaughter of birds at the shop was added by mistake and the corporation is in the process of diluting it. Another condition may be done away with is one which requires the applicant not to have a criminal record and have no criminal case pending against him in any court.
Meat sellers of Jaipur are already suffering after JMC’s crackdown on illegal meat shops, which came close on the heels of Yogi Adityanath government’s crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses in Uttar Pradesh.
Since April, the Jaipur civic body is strictly enforcing its rules, which include prohibition of slaughter of any animal at the shop. As a result, meat sellers have to take the animals to the city’s only slaughterhouse in Chainpura, which is about 25-30 kms from Jaipur city and which, by JMC’s own admission, faces water shortage.
The enforcement has also come with another set of problems. “It opens only between 4 am and 8 am and the roads to the place are broken. In addition, the policemen pull us up on the way at night and extort money,” says Abdul Rauf Qureshi, president of the New Jaipur Meat Merchants’ Association.
Qureshi added that the city has some 2,000 meat sellers and the slaughterhouse is not sufficient for them. The JMC veterinary officer said that at present some 1,200 animals are being slaughtered at the place every day. Before the JMC started enforcing its rules, around 20 animals were being brought to the facility every day.
JMC cannot increase the operational timings of the slaughterhouse because of the objections raised by the people living near it. Meanwhile, the licence fee for meat shops has also gone up from ₹10 to ₹1,000.
