Bhubaneswar, July 31: Buy meat from clean, hygienic shops by September as the municipal corporation is all set to make the modern abattoir functional.
The civic body, with the help of its technical partner Centre for Environment and Development (CED), has almost completed the construction of the abattoir at Gadakana and has invited an independent agency to take care of the facility on a profit-sharing basis.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has floated a national tender inviting the expert agency to operate and maintain the first abattoir in the city. "We have already floated the tender and it will take about a month to get it finalised. Once the partner is selected, it will be given charge of the abattoir and maintain it for 10 years," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.
With the opening of the modern slaughterhouse, the civic body will be able to abide by the apex court ruling on stopping open slaughtering of animals as well as providing hygienic meat to shoppers here. At present, open slaughtering of the animals in an unhygienic condition is a major concern for citizens.
"The objective is to stop the existing practice of blatant display of cruelty to animals and birds on the roadside. Daily slaughtering of nearly 100 goats or sheep will now be done in a scientific way," said Jena, adding their maintenance partner would look after the procedure to slaughter the animals.
The BMC has a long story behind making the slaughterhouse functional in the city. The project has gone through several changes since it was originally planned in 2011. The Telegraph had reported several times about the failure of the civic body in executing the project.
In 2011, the civic body had put forward the proposal before the state government to construct five modern slaughterhouses with provisions for hygienic and scientific slaughtering of animals to improve the hygiene level of the city as well as the meat shops here.
The five slaughterhouses were initially planned at Gadakana, Vanivihar, Pandara, Dumduma and Ghatikia. However, later it was confined to only one at Gadakana due to resistance both from local residents as well as meat-shop owners. The project was finally planned at Gadakana and another proposal was sent to the state government in 2012.
BMC officials said the requests for proposals were invited from agencies in September 2013 while the state government has accorded its approval in August 2014. "The proposal has been in place since 2011. We have come across mild developments in the project every year. There were some administrative as well as local problems because of which the project got delayed by several years," said a senior civic body official.
Goutam Nagar resident Ritesh Acharya said it was better late than never. "I have been hearing about the modern slaughterhouse for a long time and also found out that the civic body had faced several problems. However, everything is set now and the abattoir is set to open. It will definitely improve the hygiene level of the city. We will be able to get good meat," said Acharya.
