After many petitions and protests, Delhi’s meat traders finally assembled at the Ghazipur livestock market on Thursday to register for business.

Calling off their fortnight-long strike, the Delhi Meat Association agreed to shift to Ghazipur after the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) promised traders another slaughterhouse and better facilities for livestock.

“The strike has been withdrawn and most meat shops are open,” said Mohd Aquin Qureshi, president of Delhi Meat Merchants Association.

Business will begin at the Ghazipur abattoir on Saturday. Till now, Allanasons, which exports meat to over 54 countries across the world and was given the contract for the abattoir, was using it for its own business.

The traders had stayed away from the “modern abattoir” saying it will mean loss of business to hundreds and slaughtering will incur a steeper charge.

On Thursday, dozens of traders were seen at Ghazipur abattoir, thronging around MCD and Allanasons officials, submitting money for registration. “There is not much space here to sell livestock, nor are there enough godowns where we can keep our animals,” said Wasiudin Qureshi, a livestock commission agent for over 30 years.

The chief woe of Qureshi and agents like him is that they have to pay Rs 10,000 each month to the company for 12 sq yards of space, where they will conduct their business with livestock sellers — mostly from Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab — and meat purchasers. They earlier had been paying a nominal sum of Rs 500 to the MCD. The retail meat sellers will also have to pay more as slaughtering charges. Alinbi Qureshi, a meat supplier in Jama Masjid, said: “Now slaughter of sheep will be costlier by over Rs 20 and buffalo by about Rs 25. This will make meat costlier.”

... contd.