A woman sells fish near Raj Bhavan in Ranchi on Tuesday; (above) a mobile tower stands atop a Kanke Road apartment. Pictures by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, March 22: Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has turned its attention on illegal meat and fish sellers, mobile towers and water connections in the state capital as part of its ongoing anti-encroachment drive.

The municipal corporation has asked roadside meat and fish vendors to wind up shop immediately or face the music. RMC chief executive officer Dipankar Panda has issued a public notice to put an end to this illegal practice.

“So many open meat, poultry and fish shops are operating on the roadside in blatant violation of rules. The shop owners have been ordered to shut their outlets immediately,” said Panda. Those who disregard the order run the risk of having their belongings confiscated.

According to rules, a person wanting to sell meat, chicken or fish has to obtain a licence on payment of an annual fee ranging between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 from the civic body. Also, such businesses can only operate out of clean, glass-covered kiosks.

At present, 80 mutton outlets, 40 poultry outlets and 30 fish shops in the state capital are licensed. However, an equal number of illegal shops are also in existence, mostly uncovered stalls.

Those with licenses have also been directed to adhere to strict hygiene standards or else their permits would be forfeited.

However, though the civic body is taking steps to improve hygiene in such shops, the fact remains that regular and mandatory checking of abattoirs almost never takes place. The civic body is expected to certify whether each animal being slaughtered is fit for eating or not. But due to the fact that there are not enough inspectors to do the job, no such checking has been carried out over the last decade.

According to health officer Rajan Singh, the civic body would soon be appointing the required personnel.

In another development, the municipal corporation has directed mobile service providers to apply for no objection certificates (NOC) for their mobile towers within a week.

Revealing this, deputy chief executive officer of RMC Gopal Tiwari said there are over 100 mobile towers but barely a handful have the mandatory NOC.

A service provider is required to deposit Rs 25,000 for an NOC if the tower is eight metres high and Rs 50,000 if the height is more.

The municipal corporation has also asked the government, commercial buildings, multi-storied and private structures, which have been provided connections by the Water Board to receive and store water, to pay cess by March 31. Failure to do so would result in disconnection of supply.

The civic body also has invited tenders from NGOs to carry out the task of vaccination and sterilisation of street dogs and registration of pets.