Our Correspondent
Poor butchers of Uttar Pradesh , whose livelihood fully depend on cutting up and selling meat are panicked as an intensive drive is being carried out across the state against slaughter houses and retail outlets being run illegally and in violation of the Municipal and Pollution control laws.
Actions have been taken against several slaughter houses and about two dozen have been sealed in Ghaziabad, Allahabad, Varanasi, Meerut and Hapur districts.
” If government does not want slaughter house in state, give other job we are ready to do, we can not remain hungry” said Md Salim, a butcher from Gahziabad adding it is duty of government to provide livelihood for citizens
In Ghaziabad alone, 15 slaughter houses and retail shops have been raided and most of them were sealed by municipal authorities after ascertaining that those were being run without any licence and in violation of the municipal laws.
Two slaughter houses have been sealed in Allahabad and three in Varanasi. The officials have also collected samples of meat sold there and retail shops and sent the samples for lab test.
During the investigation it was also found that several slaughter houses and retail shops were running on fake documents. FIRs have been lodged against the erring persons for forging documents and violating municipal laws. Drive will be conducted not only at district headquarters but up to Tehsil and village level and legal action taken against the rule violators.
Illegal slaughter houses in the state was a major issue of the BJP in the recent Assembly elections and was highlighted BJP President Amit Shah during campaigning.
He had announced that mechanised slaughter houses will be closed after coming of the BJP into power. Slaughtering of cows and bullocks is already banned in the state under the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955.
According to reports there are indications that milk production in other states has been growing faster than in UP. And the combined whammy of a ban on illegal slaughterhouses on the one hand, and the strident campaign against cow slaughter on the other could adversely affect milk production as well.
One would have thought that the cow belt would have seen more cows than buffaloes. Instead, UP sports a ratio of just 0.64, The only other states to sport lower ratios are Harayana (0.3) and Punjab (0.47).
Look for states where the ratio of cows is high. Here you have West Bengal at 27, Assam at Odisha at 16, and Kerala at 13.
What is common to all these states? None of them want to pursue the ban on cow slaughter. Hence, the population of cows has flourished. If the cries against cow slaughter become any more strident in UP, the cow could well be declared an endangered species there.
Take another problem. UP is already the largest meat exporting state in India, accounting for annual export turnover of Rs 11,351 crore (India’s total meat exports were worth Rs 26,682 crore). By banning slaughter houses, the chief minister could well cause three major upheavals in the state.