Cracking a whip against the unlawful butcher shops in the city, the GHMC teams raided more shops especially in South Zone and conducted a special drive to take stock of their business behaviour. During the raids the officials imposed heavy fines on the shop owners and even confiscated beef and meat besides booking cases against several others for various violations.
The drive against unlawful butcher shops running without proper licenses and floating regulatory rules began from March 12 that saw relentless inspections even on the day of Holi festival where several shops are reportedly found operating business violating the prescribed rules.
According to officials, the GHMC teams led by Veterinary officers imposed fines to the tune of Rs.36,400 during the last 10 days, booked 25 cases for several violations and confiscated 940 kilogram of meat being stored illegally.
“On a single day of Holi festival, 20 cases were booked against the butcher shop owners for several violations. Apart from imposing fine to the tune of Rs.19,400 in the last four days, 870 kilogram of beef and 70 kilogram of meat was also confiscated from the shops, informed Dr.P.Sreeram Reddy, Veterinary Officer, for Circle No.9, 10, and 11 under Charminar Zone.
Explaining that so far nearly 25 prosecutions were done during the last 10 days the official said, “Per day around 12-15 shops were raided in Charminar and cases were booked for violations such as running the shop without license, selling the meat without stamps, creating nuisance for neighbours and performing the business on prohibited days etc.
“On Monday, two shops in Charminar zone were raided and fines of Rs.1,000 each were imposed on the owners for running business unlawfully,” said the official adding that the inspections on butcher shops running business waywardly will continue till the owners mend their ways and fall in line.”
“Meat business is profoundly related to human health and needs to be operated meticulously. Maintenance of hygiene and safe storage of the meat and chicken in shops is very important as any remiss in this business would prove detrimental to the health of the masses. We won’t allow anyone to run the meat business at the expense of people’s health. Anyone who found running the business, be it of meat or chicken, would be dealt with fines, prosecutions and confiscations,” the official warned.
