A temporary abattoir may be opened at one of the buildings of the now closed down facility of the Kochi Corporation at Kaloor by following pollution norms this week.
The civic administration has come under pressure to ensure the supply of safe-to-eat meat in the city even as it had to down the shutters of the abattoir at Kaloor. The demand for meat has gone up in the city during the festival season. The demand and consumption is expected to increase further in the coming weeks.
The existing slaughterhouse had to be closed down after the Kerala State Pollution Control Board cracking the whip. It was the illegal dumping of blood of the slaughtered cattle and other waste from the unit that resulted in the closure of the facility.
According to T.K. Ashraf, the chairman of the Health Standing Committee of the Kochi Corporation, the civic body may convert some of the few buildings located on the Kaloor campus into a temporary abattoir. The challenge before the local body is to safely and scientifically collect, transport and process the blood of the slaughtered animals at some locations. The possibility of shifting the waste to the waste treatment plant site at Brahmapuram or any other location needs to be explored. A decision on the temporary facility will be taken on Wednesday, he said.
The civic body plans to restrict the number of cattle that are brought for slaughtering at the temporary facility. Only a limited number of animals will be permitted to be brought in to meet the demand of city dwellers. Earlier, the slaughterhouse looked like a cattle market. The unregulated slaughter and the resultant pollution ended up in the crisis situation, he said.
The illegal slaughtering of animals without any screening is the result of the closure of the existing facility, pointed out Antony Kureethara, the leader of the Congress in the Kochi Corporation council, in a statement.
There is no quality assurance for the meat consumed in the city. The absence of a legalised and scientific slaughterhouse will lead to the proliferation of illegal slaughtering in the city, the statement said.
