Meat shops to maintain a min 150 meters distance from religious places: SDMC

New Delhi: Permission from the area councilor, a distance of at least 150 meters from any religious places are a few mandatory new policies to be adhered to set up a meat shop as approved by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s (SDMC) standing committee this Friday.

Currently, a minimum of 100m distance from a religious place had been approved by the civic body. The distance is usually measured from the religious place to the meat shop through a public pathway, HT reports.

Now the 150m criterion will be applicable only for new licences issued by SDMC, ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), once the policy is passed by the house.

The policy states, “Considering the sentiments of people visiting religious places, the minimum distance between the meat shop and a temple/gurudwara/religious place/cremation ground should be at least 150 metres.”

The 150-meter distance norm from any mosque will be applicable in cases of pork shops only.

While licences to mutton/chicken/fish and buffalo meat shops can be obtained even if they are situated less than 100 metres from a mosque provided that it is permitted by the Imam or managing committee of the mosque.

The body has also hiked the new license granting fee from to 7,000 against the previous Rs 5,000 range.

People obtaining new licenses through any fraudulent means would be fined with Rs. 1 Lakh.

Slaughtering/ sale of the meat of cow or its progeny is prohibited. Carcasses of the animal should not be visible from the outside. The shops will now also have to mandatorily display boards specifying if ‘halal’ or ‘jhatka’ meat was being sold at the shop.

“It would be compulsory for all meat shopkeepers to display board outside shops, clearly indicating halal/jhatka/buffalo/pork meat,” the policy read.