For the last four years,the Capitals 3,000 meat traders have been demanding that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) redraft the licensing policy,several clauses of which are,according to them,too strict and have been a source of harassment. The MCD had set up a sub-committee to go over the policy and resolve the issues,but nothing has been done in this regard yet. The committee is set to meet on Wednesday to discuss the issue,but the merchants are not keeping their hopes too high. The MCD had in 2006 come up with a new policy for granting and renewing the licences of meat shops. According to meat traders,however,some of the clauses were too strict to follow. The policy requires traders to get No Objection Certificates (NOC) from property owners as well as the local police,This,they claim,leads to a lot of harassment at the hands of the two authorities. The policy also says that traders can only transport the meat using private vehicles,which is not possible for the poorer traders who do not own vehicles. The traders have also complained about the clause which grants MCD the right to seal any shop over any broken rule,such as if a missing signboard or illegal slaughtering of animals. There are several other clauses that are confusing and make the procurement of licences a harrowing experience. There is always the constant threat of losing it. With so many authorities to deal with,traders become the easy target for harassment. We have been meeting the MCD for a long time over this issue,but to no avail, said Jamil Qureshi,member of the Delhi Meat Merchant Association.
