MUKESH RANJAN n 

Non-vegetarians are in for trouble, at least for next few days.

Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) on Thursday cancelled licences of all the meat shops, running in the capital, with a directive to remain closed till fresh licenses were issued, forcing them to down their shutters waiting for the next move of the State Government.  

“We simply closed our shops on the basis of news reports that the licenses issued to us have been cancelled till further orders. We are waiting for the slaughter house in Kanke to get opened so that we can understand what arrangements have been made for us over there,” said president of Meat Shop Owners Association Md. Firoz. “Till then, it will be difficult for the non-vegetarians to arrange meat for their day to day consumption,” he added.

“Meat lovers any way will find it for their consumption RMC cancels license of meat shops in it hardly matters for them whether it is legal or illegal. It will give way to only illegal business of meat in the city,” said Firoz.

He said that there were around 300 meat shops in Ranchi out of which only 52 were possessing valid licenses issued by Ranchi Municipal Corporation. Rest of the 248 meat shops were being run without licences catering to a large part of the population.

“As it is marriage season, it will also be tough for people to find meat for marriage parties in their homes,” he said.

Some of the city hotels renowned for non-vegetarian dishes are also concerned as their business is also going to hit adversely for the next few days till fresh arrangements are made by the State Government. 

“We had a stock till today as it was purchased yesterday only, but now we don’t know what to do for tomorrow as we are only known for non-vegetarian dishes. If we do not get meat, we will have to close down our shops for the next few days,” said the manager of New India Hotel near Main Road overbridge.  

The district administration, on the other hand, reiterated that the meat shop licenses were granted to them only for selling the meat and not for slitting the animals and those who will declare that they will get their animal slit at legal slaughter houses, licenses will be issued to them.

“The only condition they will have to fulfill is to get their animals slit at a valid slaughter house, otherwise they are free to sell meat at their shops,” said Deputy Commissioner Manoj Kumar. Bacon factory at Kanke is being developed into a slaughter house by RMC which will take one or two days and will be started soon after auctioning….. till then people will have to wait, he added.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand Pradesh Jamaitul Quraish, operating the slaughter houses all over the State, held a meeting at ‘Quraishi Mohalla’ in Kanta Toli on Thursday and a decision was taken to meet Chief Minister Raghubar Das after littipara elections requesting him to rethink over his decision to ban slaughter houses as it will directly affect a huge population related with this profession. They were also ready to fulfill the parameters to run their slaughter houses if given permission to reopen it again.