Non-veg consumption in Kashmir among highest

Srinagar, Apr 3: About 30,000 poultry birds and 5,000 sheep and goats are being consumed by the people of Kashmir valley everyday, which is among the highest in the country, Minister of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) Choudhary Taj Mohiudddin said.

''We are spending millions of rupees to import meat, chicken, milk, vegetables and other eatables from different parts of the country, particularly from Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan,'' he said in a television interview here last evening.

He said hundreds of trucks carrying sheep and goats and chicken are reaching the valley almost every alternate day because of one-way traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway.

The minister said an average about 30,000 chicken are being sold in the valley every day.

Similarly about 5,000 sheep and goats are being slaughtered and consumed by the people in the valley each day.

Consumption of chicken and meat is highest in the country, Mr Mohiuddin said adding people are eating meat and chicken because of a shift in their living standard.

In the early fifties and sixties, he said, people were consuming less meat because of very low purchasing power. There was hardly any meat shop in the past, he said adding now the things have changed one can find a butcher shop almost everywhere.

Admitting that prices of meat and chicken are high against the government-approved rate, the minister said that people themselves are responsible for it.

''Let people come out with the information about the high price we will act within minutes,'' he said adding mobile teams have been formed to check the prices of essential commodities.

He was informed that against the government approved rate of Rs 125 per kg, meat was being sold at Rs 170 to Rs 180 per kg.

When asked why no action was being taken against the shopkeepers for selling meat and chicken on higher rates, the minister said each and every complaint is beig looked into.

''If I or any other official of my ministry and department will purchase meat or chicken on higher rates, his or her witness will not be entertained in the court,'' he said adding it should be a ''genuine customer'' who has to come forward to weed out this crime in the society.

UNI