No control on sale of unhygienic mutton

Vijayawada: Unhygienic meat is being sold in many parts of city as there is no check on health of animals slaughtered. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has been helpless in controlling the menace. With the only slaughter house for entire city located at one corner of the city, health authorities have been failing to check the quality of meat sold in other parts of the city.

Mutton merchants outside One Town are usually skipping visit to slaughter house located near other corner of city, Kabela. They cannot travel with the slaughtered animals to other corner of city from localities like Patamata, Gunadala, Currency Nagar, Gandhinagar, Autonagar, Gurunank Nagar Colony etc. The time involved in going to Kabela and ensure slaughtering of animals and returning with meat is too long to invest in.

As a result, a majority of mutton merchants make their ‘own’ arrangements for slaughtering the animal and selling in the respective locality without a VMC stamp on the animal flesh.The traders have many times convinced the officials that going by the margin they gain by selling mutton would be not sufficient enough to go to Kabela on week days. Even on Sunday, the peak business day, they hardly go to Kabela area to get the animals slaughtered in the abattoir.

It is an open secret that animals slaughtered outside One Town are not checked for diseases. In other words, all the mutton sold outside One Town in the city is slaughtered at meat stalls itself by local people. If any animal is found sick for any reason or have a minor deformity, such animals are stopped from being slaughtered at the abattoir. A doctor deputed by VMC examines the animals before slaughtering and denies permission if it is ill.

Dr Sreedhar, VMC health officer at abattoir, opined that some of the mutton merchants avoid coming to slaughter house every day. According to an estimate, 1,000 small animals (goats, sheep) and 90 large animals (beef-based) are being slaughtered at abattoir. On week days, their number is 90 and 40 respectively.An automobile trader, S Mohiddin, said he prefers mutton every Sunday. He said he knew that the mutton sold was free from any examining authority as the animal was not slaughtered at VMC abattoir.

“I check the meat personally before taking home and observed many others flocking to the mutton shop are not doing so. It is crime selling unauthorised meat,” he said. On condition of anonymity, a mutton merchant in Currency Nagar said that as the city was big, the VMC should open another abattoir to stop sale of unauthorised meat. “Though we care for our customers, some merchants may not do so,” he confessed.