Is BMC planning to act against illegal butchers' shops?

Mumbai: Is the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) planning to take action against illegal butcher shops in Mumbai? Asked this question, mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar said, “The municipal commissioner should initiate action against anything that is wrong and not as per the rules.” Dismissing rumours that he is writing a letter to the commissioner over the matter, Mr Mahadeshwar — who maintained that he is against illegal shops — said he hasn’t penned it yet.

According to reports there are some 4,000 shops that sell chicken and 1,200 shops where mutton is sold. In a reports published in this paper earlier, a senior member of the butchers’ association had claimed that 50 per cent of such shops are illegal. However, there exist no authentic numbers.

Rais Shaikh, Samajwadi Party group leader in the BMC, claimed the shops are illegal because the BMC hasn’t been doing anything. “The BJP has double standards. Firstly, it has not allowed the modernisation of the Deonar slaughterhouse. Now it is acting against shops too. The BJP is against non-vegetarians,” alleged Mr Shaikh.

In the wake of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses in the state, the issue gained prominence in the city. Furthermore, the Public Accounts Committee of the state on Friday submitted a report in which it threw light on illegal slaughterhouses being functional within Maharashtra and how they were dumping animal waste in gutters, thus polluting water bodies. The report also suggested that there are around 20 illegal slaughterhouses in the state.

While there’s only one slaughterhouse in Mumbai — Deonar — and others have been shut, there are many shops where chickens and goats are butchered and sold. According to a senior BJP leader in the BMC, the waste from illegal slaughterhouses is huge and a reason for causing pollution.

Messages sent to BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta, asking him whether the BMC is planning to take action against illegal butcher shops, yielded no response. According to BMC sources, the BMC had planned action against illegal butcher shops first within a radius of five to 10 kilometres of the airport, as waste from these shops was attracting birds.