Meat, egg shops shut to protest crackdown

Lucknow: Lucknow plunged into a “non-vegetarian food crisis” as all chicken, goat meat and egg shops downed their shutters on Saturday to protest the UP government’s crackdown on “illegal” slaughterhouses. Vegetable prices are likely to register a steep hike.

“This is an indefinite strike. We had advised sellers to get rid of their stocks by Friday midnight”, said Mohd Rizwan Siddiqui, a member of Lucknow’s chicken market.

A PTI report earlier said that meat exporters in UP were mulling legal options, saying the Centre supports legal slaughterhouses, but the UP government has baned even the mechanised ones.

“The meat business cannot be viewed in isolation. Buffalo meat is purchased in bulk by zoos and wildlife safaris. What are you going to feed the lions now — chicken kebabs?” asked Rahimullah, a buffalo meat seller. The strike hit small restaurants selling non-vegetarian dishes. The bigger hotels and restaurants have meat stocks to last only till Sunday.

“The supply chain has been broken and we will see how the customers react to this. The people in Lucknow are mutton eaters”, said Roshanullah who runs a non-vegetarian joint in Lalbagh area.

Mohammed Shakeel, who runs his business from the Qaiserbagh wholesale market and supplies chicken to some of the top hotels and restaurants in Lucknow, said, “ Trucks bringing in any kind of meat have stopped coming because they are being harassed by the police. The business cannot run in this atmosphere.”

Meanwhile, a meat processing plant at Kairana town in west Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district was sealed after district authorities found “irregularities” during an inspection.