A large number of meat traders and retailers in Meerut have protested against the denial of licences by the Meerut Municipal Corporation (MMC). They said their right to life and livelihood was being violated by the civic body and the Yogi Adityanath government.
Referring to the recent Allahabad High Court observation which said that choice of food and trade in foodstuffs were part of the right to life, they demanded that either they be provided with an alternative occupation or their licences be renewed.
Meat shops in Uttar Pradesh were shut down after the Yogi Adityanath government banned and sealed all the slaughterhouses in the city on the ground that they did not possess the licences and the mandatory amenities.
The traders pointed out that it was the government’s job to provide a slaughterhouse where goats and buffaloes could be slaughtered legally and in hygienic conditions.
The High Court observed that it was the government’s duty to ensure smooth supply of meat. Yet the Adityanath government, which claimed to have banned only the illegal slaughterhouses, had never acknowledged its failure to do so, the meat retailers said.
Abrar Ahmad, president of Ekta Seva Samiti, a Meerut-based NGO, told The Hindu that the government and the municipality were “running away” from their responsibility to provide a legal slaughterhouse, given that it was an integral part of municipal planning.
Municipality’s job
“Maintaining a slaughterhouse is the job of the municipal corporation. The MMC never cared to establish a slaughterhouse despite it being a part of municipal planning in every town and city,” Mr Ahmed said, as he marched with other traders, from the Lisari Gate area in Meerut to the MMC building.
“Why are we being penalised when it is the civic body that failed all this while to do its job,” he asked.
