Summary:
Varanasi: A day after members of a monitoring committee constituted by National Green Tribunal detected blood in drain water that opens into a Ganga tributary, Varuna, the Varanasi district magistrate Surendra Singh fixed a seven-day deadline to stop disposal of blood from slaughtered animals in Varuna. A joint action by district administration, FSDA, VMC, UPPCB and police would be needed to check it and these details are part of the report with the district magistrate, he said.On spotting blood in Varuna through an open drain, committee chairman Justice (retired) Devi Prasad Singh raided the locality near a shut slaughterhouse at Orderly Bazar on Wednesday and found large scale slaughtering of goats inside houses.Later, he asked local authorities to stop the practice. Now, the departments would have to ensure compliance of directives by Eastern UP Rivers and Water Reservoirs Monitoring Committee (EUP-RWRMC) chairman Justice (retired) Devi Prasad Singh on Wednesday.“After studying observations by EUP-EWRMC team and directives by its chairman on Wednesday, he summoned officials of all departments, including food safety and drug administration, Varanasi Municipal Corporation and UP Pollution Control Board and fixed deadlines from three days to a week to ensure compliance,” said Singh.On flow of blood into the Varuna through an open drain in Orderly Bazar area, the municipal commissioner Nitin Bansal said, “Apart from clearing facts before committee’s chairman on Wednesday, I have also submitted a report to the district magistrate, in which it’s mentioned that following state government’s order in 2017, all slaughter houses in Kamalgadaha, Beniabagh and Orderly Bazar areas had been closed.”The modernization of the slaughterhouse in Orderly Bazar area has begun, said Bansal, but when the government ended role of municipal bodies in handling issues of slaughterhouses, the issue was being looked after by Food Safety & Drug Administration (FSDA).He said animal slaughter is being done inside individual houses and as FSDA is the licensing and regulatory authority, the officials are also looking into the matter..