Pg-3 top/
THOOTHUKUDI
To streamline the functioning of the slaughterhouse here and ensure meat hygiene, veterinarians would be deputed, Collector M. Ravikumar told reporters here on Monday.
Three retired veterinary doctors would be deputed in the slaughterhouse in May. Based on complaints from consumers, officials of Food Safety Department conducted raids on meat stalls last week. A total of 800 kg of meat was seized from various parts of the city and destroyed after it was found unfit for consumption on Saturday.
On Sunday, the officials seized and destroyed 150 kg of ‘unfit-for-consumption’ meat. Several meat stalls were not in possession of licence, which was mandatory under the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA).
Meat could be stored in refrigerators only for two hours after the slaughtering of animals, but often unsold meat was kept in cold storage for days together and such meat would not be fit for consumption, he said.
The Collector said the Food Safety officials had been instructed to raids meat stalls every week, and if they found meat unfit for consumption, they would seize and destroy it, he said.
Mr. Ravikumar said as per the Right to Education Act, 25% of admissions to LKG and Class I were reserved for students who resided within one km of the respective schools. The annual income of their parents should be not more than ₹2 lakh.
Applications could be downloaded through www.thoothukudi.nic.in . The last date for downloading applications was May 18. A total of 3,084 seats were available in 194 nursery and primary schools in the district, he said.
The Collector said 1,28,358 smart cards had been received from the government, and 31,902 cards had been issued to consumers. The district had 4,50,534 family cards in use.
Earlier, he gave the appointment order to Nambirajan as driver at Thoothukudi Sub-Collector’s office on compassionate grounds following the death of his father, who was an office assistant.
He also gave a cheque for ₹15,000 to Jebamalai of Pudukottai, a relative of Jeyamartin Xavier, who drowned in a waterbody on March 1, 2012.
Rajakani, widow of Janakiraman, who was electrocuted at Sankaralingapuram village in Kovilpatti taluk on September 23, 2014, was given a cheque for ₹15,000, sources said.
