more-in The Delhi High Court on Monday banned slaughtering of birds in the Ghazipur murga mandi here but permitted selling of live birds in the area as an interim arrangement. Compliance report A Bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V.K. Rao asked the authorities to file within a week the compliance report on its order. It further directed the authorities to come up with a plan to set up a designated slaughterhouse in the area, till then the interim order will remain in operation. “Taking note of the circumstances and the inaction of the authorities, we have no option but to direct that in the Ghazipur murga mandi, no slaughtering of birds will be permitted henceforth. Only sale of birds will be permitted,” the Bench ordered. The court order came while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition alleging that poultry birds are being traded and slaughtered illegally at the Ghazipur mandi in east Delhi. DPCC report The Bench noted that after conducting an inspection at the mandi on April 24, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) had given its report highlighting the violations. The DPCC had directed closure of the slaughterhouses operating from inside the city government’s Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board (DAMB) premises at the mandi. Counsel representing the traders at the mandi submitted that if slaughtering is banned the birds will be sold to individual shopkeepers and the activity will take place there as well. He said the decision to ban slaughtering would affect their livelihood. The court said it could not permit anything which was contrary to law and the activities were causing water pollution. “Let the traders deal with the statutory authorities, no sympathy with all these things. We are concerned with the larger issue of pollution in the area,” it said. The court had on August 31 directed the DAMB to shut down all the poultry slaughter houses running from its premises at Ghazipur without the approval of the pollution controlling body DPCC. It had also directed the DAMB to remove from the site the slaughterhouses which were operating illegally. Violation of checks The plea by animal rights activist Gauri Maulekhi has contended that there was “blatant violation” of mandatory health checks and veterinary screening of the birds which leads to spreading of infectious diseases such as avian flu. The petition also draws attention to the conditions the birds are being kept in, saying they are “tied up and hung upside down, de-feathered, stuffed in wire cages without sufficient food or water and slaughtered while alive.”

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