After Uttar Pradesh, five more BJP-ruled states face crackdown on meat shops

The closure of illegal slaughterhouses was one of the promises in the BJP manifesto for the Assembly polls.

Edited By: Rini Sharma

Updated: March 29, 2017, 9:16 AM IST

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https://www.india.com/news/india/after-uttar-pradesh-five-more-bjp-ruled-states-face-crackdown-on-meat-shops-1971477/ Copy

Meat shop shut in Aminabad (ANI)

Haridwar, March 29: Following the footsteps of Uttar Pradesh, five more BJP-ruled states -Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh – have cracked down on ‘illegal’ meat shops. Out of these five, Jharkhnad clamped down on the illegal slaughterhouse on Monday whereas, the in the remaining four, the crackdown had spread on Tuesday.

As per the latest report, three meat shops have been sealed in Haridwar whereas, 11 have come under the axe in Raipur. Meanwhile, one shop has suffered the brunt of the movement in Indore. Apart from this, around 4,000 illegal shops face closure in Jaipur with the civic corporation announcing its crackdown on such shops and slaughterhouses from April.

If a Times of India report is to be believed, 950 out of these 4,000 shops were authorised but the corporation did not renew their licences after March 31 last year, meat sellers were quoted as saying. Meanwhile, a JMC official has told the Times of India that the licences could not be renewed as the municipal body had approved a proposal for increasing the licence fee from Rs 10 to Rs 1,000, but, till date, no gazette notification had been issued on the same.

The crackdown on meat shops in five states comes days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered the shutting down of illegal slaughterhouses in the state. Earlier on Tuesday, a delegation of meat sellers and butchers from across the state had met the state Health Minister Siddharth Nath Singh. During the meeting, the delegation submitted a memorandum and informed the minister about the hardships they were facing because of the shutting down of the slaughterhouses in the Uttar Pradesh. Soon after the decision came into effect, thousands of meat sellers took to streets and held a strike for an indefinite period, starting on Monday. The strike brought over Rs 15,000-crore industry that employs 25 lakh people in the state, to a grinding halt.

The meeting comes a day after the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court asked the state government to submit details of directions and orders issued for the drive against slaughterhouses and meat shops.

The issue also came up for discussion in Parliament on Tuesday, with the central government claiming that only illegal slaughterhouses were closed. The meat sellers in the state alleged that police were raiding shops and forcing the closure of their establishments despite having valid licences.

(ALSO READ: Slaughterhouse crackdown: Yogi Adityanath left many questions unanswered before taking hasty decision)

Meanwhile, Iqbal Qureshi, president of Meat-Murga Vyapari Kalyan Samiti said the state government should have given us notice for some time before initiating the closure. Meat-Murga Vyapari Kalyan Samiti is an association of chicken sellers who have also gone on strike against the crackdown.

The closure of illegal slaughterhouses was one of the promises in the BJP manifesto for the Assembly polls. The meat sellers and butchers, however, are not happy with the move and have termed the government’s decision against illegal slaughterhouses as ‘arbitrary’.