TAXILA, Aug 15: Tehsil municipal administration has turned a blind eye to the sale of unhygienic meat in Taxila and Wah and that too above the rates fixed by the government.

Though the local administration has fixed prices of different commodities in markets, it did not devise any mechanism to check the quality of meat being sold at the shops, the consumers said while talking to this reporter.

They said most of the butchers injected water into the veins of slaughtered animals to increase their weight. “The butchers have virtually turned their shops into slaughterhouses in connivance with the authorities concerned. The hygienic condition too at these shops is poor,” said Kashif Ilyas, a government servant at Wah Cantt.

Since butchers hang meat outside their shops till late into night, it is impossible for mutton or beef to stay fresh, he added.

A butcher requesting not to be named said that they bribed officials concerned on a monthly basis to get the slaughtered animal quality checked without any formal inspection.

He said that the local butchers could not go to the slaughter house because it lacked proper arrangements.

It has been learnt that the butchers enjoying influence with the authorities concerned slaughter animals in their houses without fulfilling the legal and hygienic requirements, at the cost of citizens’ health.

When asked, a physician Dr Imran Younas told this reporter that the meat available in the city markets is infected with a number of deadly bacteria and is unfit for human consumption, causing dangerous diseases like typhoid, pneumonia, urinary tract infection and hemorrhagic colitis.

It is important to mention here that no butcher has been fined or imprisoned under this charge for the last many months.

“The respective farms, governing bodies and the city administration must ensure that the poultry stock being marketed is hygienic and germ-free. The government should arrange random sample tests to see if it is free of viruses,” he said.

People from different walks of life have called upon the local administration and health authorities to take action against these butchers and profiteers fleecing masses unabatedly.