Supreme Court refuses stay on civic body notice for closure,protesting meat associations may appeal again Shutters would literally be downed for the Idgah abattoir from Thursday. On Wednesday,the Supreme Court refused to stay the closure notices issued by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) earlier this month to all slaughterhouses located in the Idgah area. It,however,allowed trading of buffalo livestock to continue till next week,when the court will take up the matter for further hearing. Hearing an urgent plea by aggrieved butchers and others in business,a Special Bench comprising Justices V S Sirpurkar,Cyriac Joseph and Deepak Verma,issued a notice to the civic agency. The butchers had sought urgent intervention from the court as they would have to shut shops from Thursday. In compliance to repeated apex court directives,the civic agency had issued closure notices to the slaughterhouses and others in the business,asking them to shift operations to the newly-constructed abbatoir at Ghazipur. The affected slaughterhouse owners and others connected with the business brokers and livestock traders had alleged the modern slaughterhouse at Ghazipur does not have adequate facilities. They contended that even though the slaughterhouse is reportedly constructed at a whopping cost of Rs 130 crore,it failed to provide sufficient resting and feeding facilities for the animals. They also complained about the lack of parking facilities,which will be required for parking the thousands of trucks transporting the animals. According to the traders,the MCD,instead of providing adequate parking facilities,has suggested that they use the national highway as a parking lot. Opposing their arguments,MCD counsel Sanjib Sen justified the notices on the ground that continuance of unregulated slaughterhouses posed a serious health hazard and it would be appropriate for the aggrieved slaughterhouse owners at Idgah to shift to Ghazipur. None of the slaughterhouses located at Idgah have a valid license,said Sen,and the direction issued to shift operations to Ghazipur came following an apex court judgment of 2008. The court has posted the matter for hearing on next Wednesday. Referring to the order,Kishen Lal,president of the Jhatka Association,said,We are extremely disappointed. It feels like we have been thrown into the jungle. Wondering why two slaughterhouses could not operate in the same city,he said they would try and appeal to the Supreme Court again. Sirajuddin Qureshi,president of the All India Jamiat Quresh,who has been leading the agitation,said: We feel let down by the Supreme Court verdict. We will decide the future course of action in a day or two.
