Seventy per cent of the city’s population are non-vegetarians and there are nearly 3,000 retail meat shops to cater to their needs – these include 960 mutton shops, 681 beef shops, 1,077 dressed chicken outlets and 241other outlets which sell eggs, pork and fish.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner Somesh Kumar revealed this during the seventh Mayors conference on Friday.

He said that simultaneous modernisation of all the five slaughter houses were taken up at a cost of Rs.69.24 crore, including a rendering plant for solid waste treatment.

Work on the fifth abattoir at Jiaguda was postponed due to delay in getting clearance from the Pollution Control Board. Mayor Majid Hussain requested Joint Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (FPI), Government of India, Siraj Hussain, to release funds for the Jiaguda project.

Mr. Siraj Hussain regretted that no State Government had come forward to seek grants available under the central government scheme to modernise private meat shops and urged the Mayor to encourage private slaughter houses to make use of the grants for modernisation.

“I will take up the issue with private meat shop owners,” the Mayor said and added that the new abattoirs will not cause any hike in prices and also ensure livelihoods are not affected.

A report on ‘Greening of meat and poultry processing Sector in India’ was released and MoUs were signed by the National Meat & Poultry Processing Board with the Sri Venkateshwara University, Tirupati, and the National Research Centre on Meat, Hyderabad, during the meeting.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Staff Reporter / Hyderabad – March 01st, 2014