Taking a stern step after the UP Government headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath cracked a whip on illegal slaughterhouses, the Government of Jharkhand on Monday issued an order to Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police and Municipal heads in all 24 districts seeking closure of all illegal abattoirs in the State.
The order issued by the Department of Home, Prisons and Disaster Management has given a deadline of 72 hours for issue of notices to the owners of such illegal slaughter houses in the State. It said that the valid slaughter houses must ensure compliance of the rules and regulations laid by the Animal Husbandry
Department/Health Depart-ment/Municipal Bodies etc of the State Government.
The notice mentions that the Government is executing the laws keeping in view the overall public order, safety and health of the general public. It says that the since rules and regulations are already in place for slaughter houses/meat shops the concerned officers must ensure that no illegal slaughter house runs in their jurisdiction.
The Government has asked to ensure closure of the illegal slaughter houses by police stations and appointment of nodal officers, who would monitor and ensure compliance of the order. It has also said that wide publicity need to be given to the decision in order to prohibit the illegal slaughter houses from operating.
Notably, the Government has no centralised data on the legal or illegal slaughter houses, said a source. About 120 licensed meat shops operate under the Ranchi Municipal Corporation but there are no licensed slaughter houses, according to RMC.
On being asked whether the Government has any statistics of how many legal slaughter houses were running in the State, Urban Development Minister CP Singh said that the data must be there in the files and the concerned District authorities would better deal with it.
Singh expressed his happiness on the decision and said that he had been raising his voice for the cause. “I had written to the government during then CM Arjun Munda’s regime and today also I had written a letter to close the illegal slaughter houses. This is a remarkable decision of the State,” he said.
Repeated attempts to connect to Additional Chief Secretary of Home Department SKG Rahate and other concerned officials on the issue remained futile.