On Day 5, Uttar Pradesh continues to have no meat

The strike called by meat sellers in Uttar Pradesh against the crackdown on illegal slaughter houses entered its fifth day on Friday.

At a meeting of office bearers of All India Jamait-ul-Quresh held on Friday, it was decided that meat sellers would go to Lucknow Municipal Corporation for the renewal of their licences.

“We were awaiting directives from the government in connection with our demands to take a final decision on the strike,” organisation secretary of the Jamait Ashfaq Qureshi said.

He said as of now the strike, which began on Monday, will continue till Saturday morning and a decision to continue it further would be taken in a meeting.

“Based on our experience at the LMC office, we will hold a meeting of office bearers tomorrow and decide whether to continue with the strike or not,” Qureshi said.

Representatives of the agitating meat-sellers and exporters had on Thursday met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath but there was no immediate end to the deadlock.

Qureshi said some people had gone to the LMC office to submit application forms for renewal of licences of meat shops but the officials refused to accept them, saying they do not have permission to do so.

Though the strike had been going on for sometime now, the impact has not been felt much in view of the ‘Navaratra’, during which people in north India generally abstain from consuming non-vegetarian food.

Shops selling fish, egg and chicken were open in the state capital but there were not many buyers.

Representatives of agitating meat-sellers and exporters had met the state Health Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh on Thursday to arrive at a reconciliation.

The office-bearers of their associations had submitted a memorandum to the state government and wanted to meet the chief minister with their demands, which include allowing them to operate the slaughter houses as their closure was affecting their livelihood.

Photograph: PTI Photo