The Hindu : New Delhi News : Shifting of slaughter house being delayed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 17, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Shifting of slaughter house being delayed

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 16. The closure and shifting of the Idgah slaughter house in Central Delhi to Ghazipur in East Delhi is "running behind schedule" due to fierce opposition by local residents and politicians including those close to the ruling establishment.

Senior officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which is executing the project, apprehend that the MCD might not be able to meet the mid-January 2005 deadline set by the Supreme Court. In its order on July 14, the Apex Court had directed the MCD to shut down the Idgah slaughter house within six months and shift it to Ghazipur.

With opposition to this shifting coming from senior East Delhi politicians, including the local Member of Parliament, Sandeep Dikshit, who is the son of the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, officials said the process for implementation of the Supreme Court order was moving at slow speed. Further with several ruling Congress leaders including MLAs and Councillors taking to the streets against a modern slaughter house at Ghazipur, MCD officials were facing hurdles in implementing the scheme.

The political leadership has not even given clearance for a mass awareness campaign planned by the MCD in this regard. The Municipal Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta, is yet to get time to give his presentation on this issue before MLAs and Councillors.

Officials involved with the project implementation, argued that a lot of misconception and misleading information was being "disseminated" among residents of the area by those opposing a modern slaughter house at Ghazipur.

More than a century old, the Idgah slaughter house is located in the densely populated human habitation in seven acres, while the proposed one at Ghazipur would be over 80 acres in the Delhi outskirts.

Due to restrictions in the number of animals to be slaughtered at Idgah, officials said rampant unauthorised slaughtering was taking place all over Delhi. At Ghazipur there would be no such restriction, as it would have the capacity to accommodate 25,000 animals, enough to meet the requirement of Delhi.

Officials said slaughtering at Idgah was unhygienic and was being done manually. On the other hand, there would be a provision for an effluent treatment plant for liquid waste, which will be re-cycled for cleaning of the slaughter house and gardening of the adjoining area. "All solid waste and dead animals sent to sanitary landfill sites in trucks are disposed of openly leading to foul smell causing unsanitary conditions," he said.

The rendering plant being established at Ghazipur would be used to convert all solid waste into biologically harmless and useful products and by-products. A conventional slaughter house, officials argued, cannot meet the hygienic standards due to lack of sufficient space, water, proper veterinary inspection with no laboratory support besides the hot and humid climate of Delhi. "On the other hand, clean, wholesome and hygienic meat will be produced at Ghazipur as the slaughter house here would have a fully equipped air-conditioned laboratory," he said.

Unlike Idgah, the Ghazipur slaughter house would be surrounded by trees and the whole area would be landscaped.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi