Meat traders meet Dikshit, to continue protest

New Delhi, Nov 4 : After meeting Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Wednesday, meat traders here said the stir against shifting their business from the centuries old Idgah slaughterhouse to the new abattoir at Ghazipur would continue till their demands were addressed.

"We had a meeting with Chief Minister Dikshit in the morning during which we presented a list of 10 demands. She directed the municipal commissioner to look into these demands, calling them just and fair," Mohammed Aqil Qureshi, president, Delhi Meat Merchants Association told IANS.

"This meeting (with the municipal commissioner) will take place Friday."

The demands include increasing accessibility to the slaughterhouse by incorporating a "mandi-like" provision so that traders can sell wholesale meat at the new abattoir premises itself.

Another demand was that the "municipal corporation repeal the monthly fee of Rs.10,000 for slaughtering services".

The new slaughterhouse built in Ghazipur, east Delhi, is high tech, but has been criticised because it is next to a sanitary landfill site and a stinking drain. Traders complain that stray dogs in the area pose a threat to the livestock.

"We want this also to be addressed," Qureshi said.

Prices have shot up and meat supply plummeted as butchers closed their shops, refusing to move to Ghazipur. Meat prices are up by almost Rs.75. Chiken and fish prices are up by 20-25 percent.

Qureshi said 50 percent of the meat trading community is unemployed because of the shift to Ghazipur. "They have urged the remaining traders to go on strike, but a strike is unlikely to achieve anything," he admitted.

The Idgah abattoir near the walled city was closed down Oct 22 after a five-year legal battle between the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the meat traders' association.

Several meat traders and distributors are based at Idgah near the congested Paharganj area and say the shift would mean uprooting their livelihood. Others have also voiced discontent that services at the new facility costs double the earlier rates.

The traders' case is expected to come up for hearing again in the Supreme Court Wednesday. "If our concerns are addressed, meat prices could come into the Rs.180-200 range."