Many butcheries not registered with MC

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 21

In a grave lapse on part of the health wing of the Municipal Corporation (MC), many butcheries are yet not registered with the civic body.

There are more than 100 butcheries in the city, but only 53 are registered with the MC. As per the rules, if butcheries have income more than Rs 12 lakh per year, then they have to get a licence. If their income is below Rs 12 lakh then they have to be registered with the corporation.

There are a number of poultry shops which sell meet in the city, but reportedly no one has the licence. Experts claim that no one can apply for the licence as no one in the city fulfils the requirement.

Residents buy food from roadside eateries and in the absence of any quality check, they are forced to compromise with their health.

Even the hope of meat lovers in the city to get hygienic meat with the construction of an ultra modern slaughterhouse in Bathinda has been shattered as the Union Ministry for Food Processing Industries has dropped the project.

In 2014, the ministry had come up with the scheme, under which it had to construct a slaughter house in the city. Even the MC had prepared a detailed project report (DPR) with the help of a Pune-based consultant company, Mitcon.

The house was to be set up on the Badal road with grant-in-aid by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries. An amount of Rs 5.93 crore was to be released for the project, but Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who holds the portfolio, has failed to issue the grants for the project after approving it, later the project was dropped.

The MC, Mohali, was allotted the funds for the scheme as they submitted the proposal on time and those corporations which submitted the proposal with late DPR were not allotted the funds.

Chief Sanitary Inspector Sandeep Kataria said, “The civic body had initiated a drive to register these butcheries as six months ago not even a single butcher was registered. Now, 53 butcheries have been registered. Still, there are many which will be registered in the coming days.”