By IANS,
New Delhi : Strike by meat traders for the past three days, protesting closure of a two-century old abattoir, has seen the price of chicken shooting through the roof and mutton simply unavailable in capital. The traders association will meet later Sunday to decided how long the strike will continue.
The two-century-old abattoir near the walled city was closed down Thursday after a five-year battle between the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and meat trader associations here.
Amid much protests and on the Supreme Court’s directives, slaughter activities have been shifted to the high-tech slaughter house in east Delhi’s Ghazipur.
Muhammed Shagir Qureshi of the Bhai Saheb meat shop in south Delhi’s Gulmohar Park area, said: “Members of the Delhi Muslim Meat Merchant association will meet at Sadar Bazar today (Sunday) to decide the action that will be taken to fight the injustice to the butchers.”
“Our strike has been on from Thursday and all decisions on how long it will continue shall be taken there,” he added.
“Our previous slaughterhouse has been sealed and the government is forcing us to shift to a place which is the dump house of Delhi. The new area where we have been asked to shift is very dirty and not a place fit to prepare anything that is to be consumed,” Qureshi told IANS.
The immediate implication of the butchers-strike has been on the meat shops, a number of which are closed or have hiked prices, affecting the consumers.
Ravi, a worker at the Green Chick shop said there has been no mutton supply for the last three days.
“Considering it was a weekend a number of people are coming to buy mutton, but we have had to turn them away because we simply have no supply. We even have people calling us all through the day to know when the supply will resume. But we have no idea,” Ravi said.
Qureshi claimed that almost 75 percent meat shops in the capital are closed because there is no supply.
Yasin Husain, a meat shop owner in north Delhi said the price of chicken has risen from Rs.100 a kilo to almost Rs.150.
“Mutton supply has been hampered because of the strike but we have made alternate arrangements. Even three days back, mutton was selling at Rs.250 a kilo and chicken has gone up to Rs.150,” he said.
Anubha Verma, a home maker, who had guests coming over to her place Saturday said she had a tough time deciding the menu.
“I had a budget for the party last night but, thanks to the strike, it went for a toss. I had to buy three kilos of chicken at a phenomenal price and mutton was just not available. I just hope this strike comes to an end soon. It will be difficult rustling up different dishes in the absence of these non-vegetarian items for a long time and keep the kids happy,” Verma said.