RCB turns blind eye to sale of ‘unhygienic meat’

Shops continue to sell meat of old, weak and sick animals

RAWALPINDI:

The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has turned a blind eye to the sale of unhygienic meat in its jurisdiction.

Shops continue to sell the meat of old, weak and sick animals across Rawalpindi Cantonment areas without a check by the authorities concerned.

Interestingly, butchers slaughter animals inside shops in the wee hours or late at night to avoid the inspection by a doctor, who stamps the hygienic meat and rejects the unhygienic.

The RCB food department has turned a blind eye to the grave issue as consumers continue to buy unhygienic and substandard meat. Shops also stamp the animals slaughtered locally with fake stamps.

Under the set procedure, before taking animals to an abattoir for slaughter, a vet doctor ensures that they were healthy and not old or sick.

After the animal was slaughtered, the meat was stamped by the vet doctor and the slaughtered animals were delivered to the butcher shops early in the morning. The doctor's seal is mandatory to be visible on the meat hung at shops.

However, this practice is completely flouted by large and small meat sellers in markets across Rawalpindi Cantonment. Shops also sell beef and mutton at higher rates than the official rate.

The meat of sick and emaciated animals is sold to citizens in Saddar Bazaar, Gwalmandi, Tench Bhata, People's Colony, Mughalabad, Qasai Chowk, Dhok Chaudharyan, Range Road, Dhok Banaras, Chuhar Chowk, Westridge, Allahabad, Naseerabad, Siham, Misrial Road and other areas.

Interestingly, contractors of the bonafide slaughterhouse provide fake slaughter slips to the shops selling the meat the animals slaughtered at their own shops to cover up this forgery, and this practice goes on under the nose of the RCB food department.

RCB spokesperson and Assistant Secretary Muhammad Riasat said that action was being taken against illegal slaughterhouses. He said that legal action was also being taken against those who sell meat in violation of health and hygiene rules. Apart from demolishing illegal slaughterhouses, he claimed, heavy fines were also being imposed.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2022.