Uttarakhand: Mutton-chicken being sold without testing in Dehradun, High Court strict, notice issued

The Uttarakhand High Court has issued notices to the Dehradun Municipal Corporation and the Food Safety Department, asking them to file their reply by April 16, while hearing a public interest litigation filed against meat being sold without testing in mutton and chicken shops in Dehradun. A division bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Alok Kumar Verma fixed April 16 for the next hearing.

According to the case, Dehradun resident Vikesh Singh Negi filed a public interest litigation in the High Court saying that the only slaughter house in Dehradun has been closed 4 years ago. Meat of animals is being sold in meat shops without checking by the Food Safety Department. The Corporation and the Food Safety Department are unaware of where the goat and chicken are being slaughtered and where they are coming from. The slaughter house built in Doon was closed in the year 2018. Since then chicken and mutton are being sold in Doon without checking by the Food Safety Department.

The petitioner says that the Municipal Corporation and the Food Safety Department are playing with the health of the people in Doon, the public is fighting between the Corporation and the Food Safety Department. The corporation and the food safety department are blaming each other on the question of quality of meat. When the petitioner sought RTI, the Food Safety Department and the Municipal Corporation started leveling allegations against each other.

The Food Safety Department said that this responsibility rests with the Municipal Corporation, as the corporation itself is allotting the shops and taking the rent. While the corporation says that their license is given by the Food Safety Department, therefore it is also their responsibility to investigate. In the public interest litigation, the court has been requested that the corporation had implemented the rules made in 2016, in which there was a provision to check goats and chickens and cut them in the slaughter house.