Unsafe Imports? Govt 'Clueless' About Dressed Meat, Chicken Entry Into Jammu Kashmir
The Sales Tax department officials said they do not regulate or keep data about the entry of frozen or dressed meat, chicken or fish.
Published : August 8, 2025 at 4:33 PM IST
Srinagar: Amid a crackdown on unsafe meat and chicken sales in Kashmir, the officials admit they have no data or monitoring mechanism to know how dressed meat and chicken are entering the region, especially at the Lakhanpur Toll Plaza.
Officials in the Sales Tax department said they collect tax from the incoming vehicles but do not regulate or keep data about the entry of frozen or dressed meat, chicken or fish. “We collect taxes only because we are mandated by the law. We do not keep a count of how many vehicles carrying frozen or dressed meat or chicken, or fish enter from the toll plaza,” Ajeet Singh, Deputy Commissioner, State Taxes, Enforcement, Lakhanpur, told ETV Bharat.
The toll plaza in Kathua district on the Pathankot-Jammu National Highway is the first and only arterial gateway to the Jammu and Kashmir UT, where both passenger and goods vehicles enter the Union Territory.
The department officials said they don’t issue licences for such dealers or traders; as such, they don't have any dealers available in the valley. “These storage facilities are localised stores run either in the house premises by people or in some industrial areas and trade in a limited quantity,” Paraiz Ahmad Raina, Additional Commissioner, State Taxes, Enforcement Kashmir, told ETV Bharat.
While the dressed chicken, meat and fish enter the union territory without any health safety check, the livestock supplies are checked by veterinarians deployed by the Animal Husbandry department at Lakhanpur toll plaza.
Mehraj Ud Din, General Secretary of the Mutton Dealers Association Kashmir, said the livestock (mostly sheep) imported from other states into Jammu and Kashmir is checked for its health and regulated by the government.
“The sheep are counted by livestock officers, and after a medical check-up, they issue certificates, and then they are allowed to enter Jammu and Kashmir,” he told ETV Bharat.
As per rough estimates of dealers and traders, 30 per cent of poultry used and sold in the markets here is imported dressed chicken, which is served in restaurants, hotels, roadside vendors and food outlets.
Food safety officials who have been raiding the dealers and suspending their licences say these imports lack essential trade labelling like slaughter date, storage temperature, expiry date and trade link, which are very risky for health.
The officials said they also found that no dealer has a proper cold storage facility for maintaining optimal temperature and hygiene in their units. The number of dealers has increased after the government started issuing Tatkal licences for food outlets three years ago.
“We are suspending the licences for a particular period of dealers where safety and hygiene norms are violated. During raids and inspections, we did not find a proper cold storage facility with any dealer. Such perishable goods and food must have a proper cold storage facility,” Dilpazeer Ahmad, a food safety official, told ETV Bharat.
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