the goan I network
PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has expressed its displeasure at the repeated closure of the Goa Meat Complex thus denying meat traders of their source of livelihood.
Disposing a petition filed by the Qureshi Meat Traders Association, which had approached the High Court seeking to make the Goa Meat Complex at Usgao operational, as expeditiously as possible, the High Court noted that the meat traders “are not authorised to undertake slaughter of animals at any other place than the Goa Meat Complex, in so far as State of Goa is concerned.”
The Goa Meat Complex is the only placed notified as “authorised place” for slaughter of animals under Section 5 of the Goa Animal Preservation Act, 1995. “If this is the only authorised place where the members of the Association can undertake activities of slaughter of animals, then, it is the duty of the State of Goa and the Department of Animal Husbandry to ensure that the Goa Meat Complex is operational or that its operations are not hampered for reasons which are easily avoidable,” the High Court ruled.
“We do not appreciate the hampering of operations at Goa Meat Complex for long stretches despite clear directions from this Court to ensure that Goa Meat Complex is made operational,” the HC said.
“If the Goa Meat Complex is rendered inoperational for considerable periods of time like the period between November 2017 and August 2018, then the same will certainly affect the fundamental rights of the members of the Association to carry on their trade and occupation,” the HC said.
The HC disposed the petition after a statement from Dr R H Prabhugaonkar, Managing Director of the Goa Meat Complex who filed an affidavit stating that “presently the abattoir of the Goa Meat Complex at Usgao, Ponda is operational, and all the requisite licences/permissions have been obtained in terms of law, and the same are valid and subsisting.”
He told the court that the Goa Meat Complex had been constrained to suspend slaughter operations in November 2017 as certain licences had expired, and the same were pending renewal.
“The said licences have thereafter been renewed and slaughter operations have duly commenced from August 2018 onwards,” he said referring to the licence from the Goa State Pollution Control Board, Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers and licences under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
