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Gulariya told to explain slaughter house permit
The local administration has ordered Gulariya Municipal-ity to explain why it has issued a licence to China Long Food to operate a slaughter house.Kamal Panthi
The local administration has ordered Gulariya Municipal-ity to explain why it has issued a licence to China Long Food to operate a slaughter house without conducting an environment examination (EE) and an environment impact assessment (EIA).
The administration issued the order after the city government allowed the company to run the slaughter house for 20 years for payment of an annual fee of Rs 500,000.
According to Ek Dev Adhikari, deputy chief district officer at the District Administration Office, it is against the law to give a licence to a slaughter house without doing a proper study of its potential environmental impact. Since the butcher shop has no designated space to dump waste, it is likely to impact local residents. “If the slaughter house affects the people directly, it will be shut down,” said Adhikari.
A building used by the locals to sell goat meat had been bulldozed to make space for China Long Food to set up its slaughter house. The company has constructed a building on this site. The old infrastructure which was built at Rs 10 million was razed to the ground as per an agreement signed between the municipality and the company.
According to municipality sources, furniture, fixtures, windows, doors and grills have disappeared after the building was demolished. Bishwo Adhikari, head of the store at the municipality office, said he had no idea where they have gone.
Meanwhile, the municipality has installed an electric transformer for the slaughter house at a cost of Rs 1.5 million. Balaram Sharma, chief executive of the municipality, said he didn’t know how so much money was spent on installing a transformer when it could be done for just Rs 150,000. “The deal was signed before I became the chief of the municipality. As the Office of the Auditor General has also approved it, there is no way I can question the matter,” he added.
The slaughter house has attracted criticism as such facilities should be located far away from residential areas. Locals have complained about the stink emanating from it. But China Long Food said it started operations after a multilateral meeting held at the municipality decided to allow it to do so. Surendra Tamang, manager of the company, said they had begun an environmental impact assessment.