BJP controlled municipalities ‘allowed’ illegal slaughter houses

When a delegation of meat exporters call on Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath Yogi on Thursday evening, they are unlikely to remind him that most municipal corporations in the state were controlled by and continue to be controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party; and that it was their job to ensure that illegal slaughter houses did not function.

Most municipal corporations in UP including ones at Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Moradabad, Meerut, Agra, Jhansi and Gorakhpur are controlled by the BJP and have BJP mayors.

But of course Uttar Pradesh Government has taken no action against the mayors and municipal officials and councillors who turned a blind eye to the festering problem. But following a ‘fatwa’ from the new chief minister, over enthusiastic officials have been busy shutting down both legal and illegal slaughter houses, meat processing units and outlets selling meat products.

The ban, said this report in The Economic Times, is likely to affect meat processing and packaging industry, leather and livestock industry.

Meanwhile, a strike by meat and even fish sellers in the state have forced people to serve vegetable biryani at weddings, as this video uploaded by The Hindustan Times would suggest.

The ban has pushed butchers out of business, with many of them bitterly complaining that they have suddenly been stopped from earning a livelihood by using the only skill they had. In this report carried on the BBC website, a butcher in Allahabad complains that the municipal corporation has been refusing to renew the licence unless he puts up a waste disposal unit. But he claims he does not have the money to invest on it. Their cycle of daily earning and spending had been disrupted, he complained. Even licensed butchers are scared of opening their outlet because of fear of vigilante groups.