The abattoirs under the two city corporations have fallen from grace of the authorities concerned, and a handful of them that exist in the city lack modern machinery and equipment with inadequate hygiene and sanitation.
The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) runs two slaughterhouses – one in Hazaribagh and another in Kaptan Bazar, while the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) operates three at Mohammadpur, Mirpur 11 and Gulshan Kitchen Market.
The city corporations shy away from undertaking infrastructural development for the few butchery in the capital for a long time.
In proportion to doctors, butchers and cleaners for the shambles, the surrounding environment of the slaughterhouses is in deplorable conditions.
A visit to different abattoirs revealed that the two in Dhaka South City Corporation are in bad shape, with their floors having potholes, and walls bearing the testimony of an age-old structure lacking refurbishment.
The DSCC allocated Tk50lakh for the development and construction of its slaughterhouses, but no renovation was done. Seeking anonymity, two butchers of the city’s Kaptan Bazar slaughterhouse said no repair was carried out here in more than 10 years.
It was because of the negligence and lack of sincerity of the Dhaka South City Corporation, he said.
The adjacent vicinity of the slaughterhouse is very unhygienic. The city corporation’s waste container is placed nearby from where garbage is not collected regularly.
The time of slaughtering cattle is divided into two four-hour shifts – one from 2am to 6am and another from 6am to 10am every day. The charges to slaughter a cow is Tk50, buffalo Tk75, and goat or ship Tk10.
The Hazaribagh abattoir is the biggest of all in the city, but lacks standard.
A butcher of that shamble said more than 200 cattle got slaughtered here every day, but the city corporation left it uncared for for a long time.
On the other hand the slaughterhouse at Mohammadpur Krishi Market, where cattle are slaughtered is very narrow with a very poor infrastructure.
Lack of application of cattle slaughter laws gives the butchers in most of the city’s kitchen markets leverage to avoid going to the designated butchery and to prefer butchering cattle here and there.
According to the laws, there should be facilities for medical tests of the animals to be slaughtered at the shambles and issuance of standardisation certificate for the meat, but most city butchers do not follow the rules.
To know about it, this correspondent repeatedly tried to reach Chief Estate Officer of DSCC Khalid Ahmed over phone, but he did not respond.
DNCC Chief Estate Officer Fosi Ullah, however, admitted the shortage of slaughterhouses in the city.
He told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have undertaken a project to build a large slaughterhouse at Gabtali.”
However, the project remained suspended following a stay order of the High Court on behalf of a writ petition filed by a few sand and brick traders, he said.
The DNCC officer claimed that the petitioners mentioned in their petition that they already took out a lease on the land chosen for the slaughterhouse.
“The hearing in this regard will be held this week. If the court verdict comes in our favour, we hope we will be able to start the project immediately,” he added.