HYDERABAD: Even after envisioning a cattle colony plan, the authorities are still unsuccessful in ridding the urban areas of cattle pens and private slaughterhouses.
The cattle colony of Hyderabad, spread on 217 acres along Hyderabad-Tando Muhammad Khan road, despite all efforts, has failed to attract both the pens and the butchers.
The colony’s remoteness from the urban centres, lack of facilities like road infrastructure, water supply, electricity connections and lack of space for the daily movement of cattle are being cited as the main impediments.
Meanwhile, the butchers though apparently wary of the official checks on the health of animals also refer to the long distance of the house from their meat selling shops as an irritant besides other issues. “Our elders established this cattle pen in Halanaka many decades ago. Over the years, we acquired the facilities like electricity and water supply. Our proximity to the Phuleli canal allows us to take our cattle for bathing regularly. Here, we also have enough space from the pen to the canal for routine movement of the cattle. We don’t get the same facilities in cattle colony,” said Rashid Ali, whose pen is located near the bank of Phuleli canal.
He also finds the number of plots and their sizes insufficient.
An official source of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC), which owns the colony, informed the APP that out of 950 plots, the pens have been set up on 300 plots so far over the last decade.
“The pace of relocation of the pens from the areas in the city, Latifabad and Qasimabad Talukas to this colony has been admittedly slow,” he acknowledged.
Mir Ali Soomro, who owns a pen in Qasimabad, said he could not afford to buy a pen in the colony by selling his small plot of few hundred square yards located near the Bypass Road.
He, while pointing out a huge amount of distance he would have to travel daily if he relocated his pen, said that “my pen and residence are in the same plot, while my financial position doesn’t allow me to buy a plot, the relocation will also disturb my family and perhaps the whole business.”
An elderly pen owner in Hussainabad, Adal Ahmed, also shared similar reasons like proximity to a waterway, established customers and distance as impediments to the relocation.
Municipal Commissioner Shahid Ali Khan said the HMC was trying to address all the concerns to facilitate shifting of the pens.
The meat sellers also underline similar constraints, arguing that their businesses would be affected if they opted for it. “We slay the goats at our own shop where we sell the meat. If we are forced to take the animals to the government’s slaughter house this will add transportation cost which will ultimately lead to a hike in the meat price which is already expensive,” said Kamran Qureshi, who runs a meat shop in Latifabad.
According to the municipal commissioner, the HMC charges Rs 5 for buffalo and Rs 2 for goat at the slaughter house. “It’s a very nominal fee,” he said.
However, he said that at the council meeting of the HMC on April 6, a member tabled a resolution for increasing the fee tenfold to Rs 100 for the big animal and Rs 50 for the small. The resolution drew a debate against increasing the fee.
“We are already finding it hard to convince the butchers to go the slaughter house. Any increase in the rate will fail our efforts,” argued Haroon Qureshi, chairman of Union Committee 9 which is based in Paretabad.
The resolution was deferred for debate in the next council meeting.
The HMC’s slaughterhouse remained shut for almost a decade before former Hyderabad commissioner Qazi Shahid Pervez inaugurated it after rehabilitation on February 8. However, according to the HMC sources, only 60 to 70 goats and buffaloes are currently being slaughtered daily at the house.
“Around 90 percent of the slaughter is still taking place at unauthorised places and that too illegally,” an official of HMC, who requested anonymity, told the APP.
Veterinarian Dr Arif Jahejo said at the unauthorised places there are no checks to stop the slaughter of weak and unhealthy buffaloes, calves or goats.
He said that the HMC’s facility also employs the vets who are given responsibility to certify the health status of each animal before its slaughter.
Advocate Wahid Ali Khan, on behalf of some residents of Latifabad unit 9, filed a petition in the Sindh High Court in February, pleading for action against the butchers who slaughter animals at unauthorised places.
He informed the court about the alleged nuisance such places create in the neighbourhoods and appealed to the SHC to order the authorities to close those butcher shops.
The petition is pending a hearing in the Hyderabad Circuit Bench.
SHC Justice Iqbal Kalhoro has ordered the closure of the illegal slaughterhouses, especially those which operate on the banks of the Phuleli canal.
