Fed up of buying poultry products from unhygienic meat shops, here comes good news! The meat shop owners including non-veg foodstuff lovers may heave a sigh of relief as the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has not just eased the clauses for the bidders for abattoir’s operation cum maintenance but is also planning to start model meat shops within a month in Ranchi.
Considering the location of the first state-of-the-art abattoir and after receiving sufficient complains from the Meat Seller Associations, Municipal Commissioner, Shantanu Kumar Agrahari said that in an attempt to reduce the burden of the meat sellers, the Municipal Corporation has identified five busiest avenues where these model meat shops will be set up.
In view of the total population, the Civic Body personnel have identified sites at Argora, Doranda, Dhurwa, Madhukam and near RIMS to establish model meat shops. All the model meat shops will run on trial basis for a month long tenure once the abattoir at Arsande, Kanke designed on Italian model is made operational for assessment. According to the Municipal Commissioner, the abattoir will be made functional from September 15 besides completing its pending procedure of operation cum maintenance by September 30.
“As per the agreement signed by KK Narsaria, the firm who has taken the charge of designing the abattoir at a cost of Rs. 15.55 crore, it has to also open model meat outlets to familiarize public with abattoir concept. Considering the response, later on number of outlets will be also increased. However, identification of sites is solely upon RMC. The procedure of selecting lands at five places has been completed,” said, RMC Officer (PR), Naresh Kumar Sinha.
“Also, the model meat outlets will promote hygiene among the sellers and the buyers. Only those poultry products will be sold out here that have been verified from the veterinary doctors and have been processed at the mechanized abattoir. After paying certain amount, sellers can get fresh chopped pieces of meat for vending as per the requirement. The rate for common consumers will be fixed soon,” added Sinha.
The outlets will be equipped with all modern equipment for preserving the poultry products for long period. Sinha also added that the company will have the responsibility of purchasing deep freezer vans including other sophisticated machines and will distribute the slaughtered meat at five outlets as per the shop owners order.
Notably, after the closure of illegal meat shops, RMC was supposed to construct 10 mini-slaughter houses within the municipal periphery for the convenience of meat sellers. However, the civic body failed to receive a single application from any individual or an entity for setting up the mini slaughter houses in the city due to stringent norms.
As per the rules, all the mini slaughter houses must be equipped with latest machines, establishment of recycling plant at the mini slaughter house units beside keeping all the animals brought for slaughtering at an open space separately has been made mandatory under the municipal licence (for sale of flesh, fish and poultry), regulation, 2017.