Lalitpur, November 5:

Chief of the Public Health Department of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Dr Baburam Gautam said today that the KMC will not go against the welfare of meat entrepreneurs in the name of implementing the Slaughterhouse and Meat Inspection Act 2055 BS.

“While implementing the act, we will make sure that not a single meat entrepreneur is forced to give up his traditional profession,” he said at an interaction on ‘Meat Act and the Meat Entrepreneurs’, organised here by Jheegu Manka Samaj (JMS), a support group for community development.

“Infrastructure development is essential for the implementation of the act,” he said, adding that animals to be slaughtered should be healthy. He said a representative of the JMS will also be included in the committee formed to implement and monitor the meat act.

Minister for Agriculture said he will work to arrange the sale of meat products at the Kalimati Fruits and Vegetables Market.

Dr Rewati Man Shrestha of the Community Livestock Development Project said a slaughterhouse with the capacity to slaughter 200 animals a day has been useless because the government failed to implement the meat act.

Speakers at the function expressed concern about the way meat is being sold in the valley. Many of them accused the government of playing with public health.

President of the Retail Goat Meat Entrepreneurs Association Ganesh Lal Shahi, however, accused the KMC of failing to uphold the pact made with the association to maintain quality in the sale of meat products.