KOCHI: The City Corporation finds it tough to implement the High Court order on closing down illegal slaughterhouses as the city has only one licensed abattoir. The Corporation’s Kaloor slaughterhouse is the only licensed one in the city where the demand for meat is the highest.
“Closing down all unlicensed slaughterhouses is not practical as the Kaloor abattoir cannot meet the entire city’s meat requirement. On an average, 300 animals are being butchered at Kaloor while on holidays it goes upto 500. But this is grossly inadequate. Hence slaughtering has been permitted at the Corporation’s Mattanch-erry abattoir which lacks State Pollution Control Board’s approval,” said Adv. V.K Minimol, health committee chairperson.
Ahead of streamlining slaughtering in the city, the civic body’s health wing has started taking detailed data on places where illegal slaughtering is rampant. “Based on the data, we will decide wherever slaughtering can be allowed. A blanket ban on unauthorised slaughterhouses is impossible though unhygienic and unsafe butchering along roadside and open places will not be allowed,” she added.
The civic body has recently revived the Kaloor abattoir at a cost of Rs. 25 lakhs and a new butchering hall has been constructed. Though a modern abattoir was proposed at Mattancherry with most modern butchering equipment on a PPP basis, it failed to takeoff. A government approved agency M/S Virgo Aqua has already submitted DPR, tender document and design estimate of the abattoir.
Meanwhile, health department officials admitted that the city lacked a system to meet the mandatory norms for meat sale. “There is no mechanism to check the source of cattle and poultry that are slaughtered for meat. Butchering is being done in very unhygienic conditions in markets and open spaces in the city,” officials said.
