Agra: Two months after crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses and meat shops in UP soon after chief minister Yogi Adityanath took over the reins of the state, opening a meat shop is still proving to be an uphill task in the state. Of 562 applications received in the past two months in Agra, only 26 have been granted licences so far. Officials said over 250 applications had been rejected outright given the strict rules required for setting shops.
“We cannot take risk of granting licence to shops even if there are minor glitches and invite the wrath of the government later,” said a municipal corporation official.
“In many cases, there is a religious place within the 50-metre radius of the shop for which the permission is being sought, in other cases, shop owners are not able to procure deep-freezers, geysers and knives and choppers made of steel. The NOC can be granted only after all the parameters laid in the rules are met,” said Yogesh Sharma, chief veterinary officer of Agra municipal corporation.
On April 24, the administration had introduced a single-window system at the office of food safety and drug administration (FSDA) to reduce delay and assist applicants in getting the approval in a hassle-free manner, but that has not fetched the desired results. On the other hand, applicants are now alleging harassments at the hand of officials.
Sarvadaliya Muslim Sangharsh Samiti (SMSS) national president Haji Jaleemuddin Qureshi said, “The agencies involved in granting NOCs and licences are raising objections on flimsy grounds. The Allahabad high court in an order has fixed July 17 as the deadline to grant licences to deserving shops and slaughterhouses, but going by the pace of the work, it will take many months before licences would be issued.”
“We have been demanding that people should be allowed to open shops near mosques, as we do not have any objections. This rule of not opening shops with 50 metre of religious places should be applicable for temples and other religious places which have objections,” he added.
FSDA-designated officer Devashish Upadhayay told TOI, “A month’s time is required to grant licence which involve no-objection certificate from the civic body and police. A spot visit by the FSDA is also required to check whether shops are adhering to the prescribed rules or not. For some time in past, the drive slowed down due to other departmental work, but now the work is going on at the required pace.”
The system had raised hopes of meat sellers as they were no longer required to make rounds of different offices to obtain no-objection certificates. The administration mandated that instead of applicants visiting offices of circle officers and the municipal corporation to get requisite NOCs, the FSDA officials would internally conduct this process on their behalf after receiving the applications.
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