The Times of India         18.12.2013

Mysore City Corporation raids meat shops, seals six for not having licence

MYSORE: The Mysore City Corporation on Tuesday morning raided meat shops that were operating without licence and closed six of them. Though there were a couple of other such shops in the area, the MCC officials found them locked.

Following complaints from the public about unhygienic conditions at the meat stalls in the area, the health and the environment departments launched the drive at 7.30 am. The officials supported by the police raided shops located on Mysore-Yaraganahalli Road and started to attach the property leading to tension. At one point, the shop owners and their staff tried to stall the drive and accused the MCC officials of launching the drive to send a message to the meat stall owners to pay them.

However, the officials led by health officer Dr D G Nagaraj sealed the six meat shops. The officials said the owners were asked to close the shops given that they have not taken permission to sell the meat debunking the claim made by the owners and staff that the drive is sudden and they were not given time. "We'd issued notices to them asking them to close down the shop,'' the officials said.

During the raid it was noticed that the stalls were slaughtering at their premises instead of butchering it at the designated place in Kesare in Narasimharaja Mohalla. Some of them had let their effluents directly into the storm water drains, which, the officials, said is against the rules.

The operation was carried out on Mysore-Yaraganahalli main road, Raghavendra Nagar and near Teresian College. During the drive, the staff questioned area corporator B M Nataraju, who was present on the spot, and accused him of taregtting them to collect money from them. However, the coporator said the officials are conducting the drive against meat shops which don't have licence from the health department of the MCC.