Lucknow: Meat crisis in the city following butchers' strike is expected to intensify in coming days as Lucknow Municipal Corporation has decided not to renew licences of even legal meat and chicken suppliers in anticipation of further orders from the state government.After state government enforced strictly closure of all illegal meat shops and slaughter houses, all butchers have gone on an indefinite strike, including legal suppliers. They are complaining that LMC has shut down meat shops without even providing a modern slaughterhouse in the city.The butchers complained the crisis was because of LMC's laxity in issuing licences since 2015. As per LMC's estimate, there are over 1,000 meat shops in the city of which only 630 are legal. Though 300 meat sellers could get their licences renewed last year, 330 of them were denied because of various reasons.A veterinary official of the corporation said, "We have legal reasons for not renewing their licences. Some have opened shops in public places while others have set up shops near religious places. After we received complaints from locals of that area, we denied issuing licence ."LMC officials also pointed out, "The meat sellers never gave us prior information, nor any list of demands before going on strike. They have created the present crisis. Since they did not inform us beforehand, we cannot take up their matter with the government."As the new financial year approaches, the LMC's veterinary department has decided not to renew even existing licences in order to prevent further chaos. An official said, "We are meeting our seniors daily to resolve the butchers' problem and also trying to streamline meat vending process in Lucknow but since the new government has some specific plans for slaughterhouses , we have put the licence renewal on hold till new orders come."

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