Bhubaneswar, April 26: The municipal corporation plans to launch a drive to close as many as 315 unlicensed meat shops-cum-slaughterhouses operating in various parts of the city.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation wants to abide by the 2014 order of the Supreme Court that says there should not be any unlicensed meat shops operating in any urban local bodies in the country. Only authorised slaughterhouses with modern facilities should be allowed, it had said.

According to official information, the city now has close to 630 roadside slaughterhouses, of which 315 do not have licences.

"We have already finished our survey in 45 wards and identified such meat shops that will be closed down. It is mandatory for the meat shops to register with us if they want to run their business in the city," said Bhubaneswar mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

Jena said that the city administration had already initiated the process to build two modern meat markets at Unit-IV and Ghatikia in the city, apart from one modern slaughterhouse. He said land was being identified to set up seven more meat markets.

"We want to ensure hygiene and safety of our citizens and this is why we have built the modern abattoir at Gadkana. Due to local opposition, the work had been halted in the past. The issues have been resolved now and work on the construction of the abattoir is going smoothly," said the mayor.

Iqbal Qureshi, a meat-shop owner on the National Highway-16, asked: "Each of the modern meat markets that the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation is constructing can only accommodate 30 shops while our number is more than 600. What will happen to the others?"

On the issue of accommodating all meat-shop owners, mayor Jena had hinted that they would try to open one shop at every ward and said there would be a portal specially designed for meat-shop owners where they would be linked with Aadhaar and would be monitored on a regular basis for hygiene.

"The corporation should ensure there are enough hygienic meat shops in every locality," said Tukuna Baliyarsingh, a resident of Rasulgarh.