After Jharkhand, now state governments in Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are cracking down on illegal slaughterhouses. The five states are following Uttar Pradesh’s footsteps where Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath banned illegal meat abattoirs just in the first week of coming into power.
All the five states which have launched the crackdown are BJP-led governments. As per a report in the Times of India, three meat shops have been sealed in Haridwar, 11 have been closed down in Raipur and one in Indore.
Apart from these, 4,000 illegal shops in Jaipur are facing closure after the civic authorities said that they will be acting against such shops and slaughterhouses from April. 950 of these 4,000 shops are reportedly authorised but their licences have not been renewed by the corporation after March 31 last year.
As per a JMC official, the licences were not renewed as the municipal body had approved a hike in the licence fee from Rs 10 to Rs 1,000, but the gazette notification for the same had not been issued till date.
In Haridwar, out of six shops only three had a valid licence and the rest were operating illegally. Police officials said that action is being taken on the complaints, especially during Navratra. Police officials also assured that action will only be taken against meat shops which are operating without a valid licence but those with legal papers and sanctions will not face any trouble.
In Chhattisgarh, too, 11 illegal meat shops have been asked to shut down in just three days. The shop owners have been accused of polluting the environment by dumping waste directly near the roadside or into the sewer.
