Lucknow: Lucknow was forced to turn vegetarian on Saturday as the entire chicken, goat meat and egg market went on strike to protest against the shutting down of slaughterhouses.
“This is an indefinite strike. Several shops downed their shutters on Friday but from Saturday it is a complete strike. We had advised the sellers who have stocks in their shops, to sell till midnight on Friday and then shut shop from on Saturday,” said Mohd Rizwan Siddiqui, a member of the Lucknow Murga Mandi Samiti.
Though the state government has been shutting down unauthorised slaughterhouses, goat meat, chicken and egg sellers have gone on strike to express solidarity with the buffalo meat sellers.
“The meat business cannot be viewed in isolation. Buffalo meat is purchased in bulk by zoos and wildlife safaris. What are you going to feed the lions now—chicken kebabs,” asked Rahimullah, a buffalo meat seller.
Buffalo meat is consumed mainly by the economically weaker section that cannot afford goat meat that sells at Rs 450 per kg whereas. The buffalo meat is available at Rs 180 per kg.
He said that the police are going overboard in forcing closures of meat shops. “Now that they are forcing closure of goat mutton shops, we might as well close down the business,” he added.
The strike in the meat market has hit small restaurants selling non-vegetarian dishes. The bigger hotels and fine dine restaurants have meat stock to last them till Sunday.
“The supply chain has been broken and we will see how the customers react to this. The people in Lucknow are mutton eaters,” said Roshanullah who runs a non-vegetarian joint in Lalbagh area.
According to Roshanullah, Lucknow does not have many takers for fish because majority of Hindus avoid eating fish is the position of Rahu in their horoscopes is not favorably placed.
Mohammed Shakeel, who runs his business from the Qaiserbagh wholesale market in Lucknow and supplies chicken to some of the top hotels and restaurants in Lucknow, said, “Trucks bringing in any kind of meat have stopped coming because they are being harassed by cops. The business cannot run in this atmosphere and the state government will have to take a decision in this regard. They can declare UP a vegetarian state if the people want.”
Meanwhile, in a related development, a large meat processing plant at Kairana town in Shamli district was sealed after district authorities found ‘irregularities’ during checking.
A team of district conducted the checking at Meem Agro Foods Pvt Ltd on Friday and sealed it. Circle officer Bhushan Verma said that several meat shops which were allegedly running without licenses were also closed down in Thana Bhawan, Jalalabad and Shamli town on Friday. It may be recalled that some meat shops in Hathras were set on fire by –anti-social elements’.
