Prayagraj, March 30 (). The Allahabad High Court has issued notices to the Center and the Uttar Pradesh government seeking their response on the alleged illegal operation of meat shops and slaughterhouses in Ghaziabad.
Notices have also been sent to Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Animal Welfare Board of India, Commissioner of Food Safety, Uttar Pradesh, Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation, Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
Hearing a PIL filed by Ghaziabad corporator Himanshu Mittal, a division bench of Chief Justice Pritinkar Diwakar and Justice Soumitra Dayal Singh directed the above-mentioned respondents to file a reply by May 3.
The PIL has pointed out statewide non-compliance of Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and MoEFCC guidelines and various apex court orders.
His advocate Akash Vashisht, appearing for the petitioner, submitted before the court that out of about three thousand meat shops and slaughterhouses in Ghaziabad, only 17 have licenses under the Food Safety and Standards Act.
Only 215 meat establishments are registered with the Food Safety Department under the Act and only 62 improvement notices have been served, the petition said.
The petitioner, in his PIL, alleged that there is no mandatory consent to establish and operate any meat shop and slaughter house in the district under Section 25 of the Water Act.
The petitioner’s counsel said that cruelty to animals laws were being violated.
In the Laxmi Narayan Modi case, the Supreme Court constituted a committee on slaughterhouses for each state.
Counsel for the petitioner said, such committees are completely inactive in the entire state. In every district, the Committee for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is either non-existent or inactive.
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