Slaughterhouse turns tipplers’ den
For the residents of Perambur, the trouble with a slaughterhouse in their area is not that it is polluting the environment, but one that is not functioning at all even five years
Published: 01st January 2017 01:27 AM | Last Updated: 01st January 2017 02:13 AM | A+A A-
CHENNAI: For the residents of Perambur, the trouble with a slaughterhouse in their area is not that it is polluting the environment, but one that is not functioning at all even five years after completion of work.
Thus the modern facility has now turned into a den for tipplers and reportedly even criminal elements, causing panic among the locals. The abattoir was set up after the courts, pollution control board and the human rights commission put pressure on Chennai Corporation to act on existing slaughterhouses on grounds of poor hygiene. There are three slaughterhouses at Saidapet, Perambur and Villivakkam.
Of these, the one at Perambur is the busiest, handling nearly 20,000 kgs of meat every day. After facing pressure, the civic body entered into an agreement with a Delhi-based private firm and built a modern slaughterhouse at Perambur at a cost of `48 crore by 2011. But the persons who were employed in old facility claimed that the modern abattoir was equipped with machines that would render many among the 3,000 of them jobless.
Led by the then MLA, they moved the Madras High Court, from where the matter went to the Supreme Court.
As the slaughterhouse remained closed over the years, it became one of the hangout spots for tipplers.
When Express asked Neelakandan, a former MLA of Thiru.Vi.Ka Nagar, he alleged that
the contract entered into by the then DMK government contained violations.
“The butchers at the old slaughterhouse approached me to save their livelihood, as the new facility was equipped with machines that could replace manual workers. Hence, I represented these things to the AIADMK-led government, and the matter went to court,” he said. However, the present MLA Thayagam Kavi alias Sivakumar of DMK countered that these allegations were part of a political vendetta.
“The earlier slaughterhouse was unhygienic, which threatened the lives of local residents. This prompted us to set up a modern facility. But to ensure that our party does not get any credit for this, the previous MLA instigated the butchers and approached the court,” he charged.
