Carcass meat: Kolkata Municipal Corporation grills zoo leftover meat collector

KOLKATA: A Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) team on Monday quizzed Rampreet Das, the man who collects leftover meat allotted to animals at the Alipore zoo and transports those to a dumping ground, according to an agreement with the zoo authorities.
A team of food inspectors went to interrogate Das at the zoo. KMC’s food inspectors talked to the zoo’s authorized vendor for half an hour before taking him to places in the zoo from where Das collects the leftover meat.

A KMC health department official said Das conceded that according to an agreement with the zoo authorities, he collects leftover meat and bones from the cages of the animals and transports those to a fertilizer firm at the Dhapa dumping ground. When the KMC officials asked him to produce documents in connection with the delivery of bones to the dumping ground, Das reportedly said that he was just one of the vendors of an agency that supplies bones from the zoo and meat shops in the nearby adjacent Kidderpore area to KMC’s dumping ground. “We have asked for the documents, which we will match with our documents from the conservancy department,” said a KMC health department official.

The KMC health department has tied up with the civic body’s conservancy department in an effort to crack down on the carcass meat racket, which is believed to be still active in the city and the suburbs. “We have formed a crack team comprising officials of the health and conservancy departments. Apart from visiting restaurants and roadside eateries, this team will also visit the sources from where carcass meat is being supplied to these eateries,” said MMiC Atin Ghosh.

KMC health officials are also keeping in touch with the Kolkata Police’s Enforcement Branch (EB) officials. KMC and EB jointly conducted a raid in Beliaghata and Sealdah last weekend to track down local agents who have been a part of a carcass meat racket.