shocking news for non-vegetarians — there is no guarantee that the mutton, beef

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'Too many illegal slaughter houses'

12 Oct 2007, 0156 hrs IST ,Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN

NEW DELHI: There is some shocking news for non-vegetarians — there is

no guarantee that the mutton, beef or pork you eat is hygienic.

 

This emerges from the Centre's affidavit before the Supreme Court

admitting that unregistered and illegally operating slaughter houses

far outnumber the legal ones.

 

The affidavit gives complete data about 10 states and Union

territories and the figures are startling to say the least.

 

Only 71 of the 456 slaughter houses are certified by the concerned

state pollution control boards as being equipped with necessary

hygienic and anti-pollution mechanism to provide hygienic meat. Under

the existing law, no slaughter house can operate without the prior

consent of the board.

 

The affidavit was filed this week after the apex court, annoyed with

the Centre's repeated request for time to file its response to a

petition filed by L N Modi, on September 13 threatened to close all

illegal slaughter houses and those operating without permission from

the boards.

 

The haste in filing the affidavit is quite evident as at two

different places the figures relating to total number of slaughter

houses in a state or Union territory do not match. For instance, the

Centre says the total number of slaughter houses in Andhra Pradesh is

148, of which only six have permission from the state pollution

control board.

 

However, for the same state, the Centre says there are 214 registered

slaughter houses and 270 unregistered ones, taking the total to 484.