Half of Jalalabad butcheries upgraded

JALALABAD (Pajhwok): Fifty percent of butcheries in Nangarhar’s capital city of Jalalabad are operating to standards, says a municipality official.

A drive to standardise meat shops in Jalalabad has been launched in nine districts of the city. So far, 50 percent of butcheries have been spruced up and standardised.

Jalalabad Municipality spokesman Bakhti Jan Murad told Pajhwok Afghan News the campaign was aimed to keep the city clean.

Murad said: “In the past, the butcheries didn’t meet the required standard in the past, hanging uncovered meat exposed to the air.”

In this way, the meat on display would lure flies and contribute to pollution, damaging the image of the city and creating health hazards.

According to him, now half of the butcheries have been upgraded and efforts were ongoing to standardise the remaining meat shot as well.

Meanwhile, butchers hailed the drive and said it would leave a positive impact on their business and lead to customer satisfaction.

One of them, Kamal Khan, acknowledged people previously complained about bad hygiene. But now they are cooperating with the municipality, a trend that is spurring meat sales.

Mumtaz, another butcher, commented: “We can now preserve our meat for a loner time, having freezers to keep flies and other insects from sitting on meat. We want the government to supply us electricity round the clock.”

The residents of Jalalabad are happy about the upgrading of butcheries. Ahmadullah, one of them, told Pajhwok the sale of safe meat would help prevent the spread of disease.

Jamal, another inhabitant of Jalalabad, asked municipality officials to standardise all of butcheries in the interest of public health.

But a number of the meat sellers called upon the authorities to set up a special meat market and a modern slaughterhouse in each district of the city.

Hafizullah, head of the butchers’ union, said they shared their demands for the creation of special markets and a slaughterhouse with the relevant authorities.

For his part, Murad said the municipality would try to meet the demands of butchers within the available resources.

aw/mud