LAHORE, Dec 30: Meat prices are up following the return of the mafia to the Kot Kamboh Bakkar Mandi and slaughterhouse from the District City Government to the Allama Iqbal Town under the devolution plan two months back.

Quality mutton retail price has increased from an average Rs 120 per kg to Rs 130 per kg and beef from Rs 60 to Rs 65 per kg as a result of increase in wholesale prices of mutton and beef from Rs 95 to Rs 110 and Rs 35 to Rs 40 per kg, respectively. The hike is due to ‘commission’ being extorted by the mafia consisting of commission agents and the unions.

A further increase in the meat prices in the near future cannot be ruled out as the mafia is extorting up to 6 per cent of the wholesale price of the meat from those selling the animals and the city meatsellers, adding an average Rs 600 to Rs 800 per animal to the price of beef and Rs 120 to Rs 200 per animal to the price of mutton.

The mafia starts extortion by forcing traders to pay Rs 100 to Rs 120 per truckload on the arrival of animals at the Bakar Mandi. Then, they recover commission and union fund from the traders in the Bakar Mandi and last but not the least they have resumed the practice of keeping a certain number of animals entering the slaughterhouse alive for manipulating the meat supply to control the wholesale prices. The defunct Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore had conducted an extensive operation against the extortion mafia in November-December, 1999, and declared the Bakar Mandi and the slaughterhouse open after ejecting it completely.

The civic body’s annual income from the market and the slaughterhouse had increased from Rs 10 million to Rs 110 million and mutton and beef wholesale rates had fallen by Rs 7 and Rs 5 per kg, respectively, as a result.

An average 200,000 goats and sheep and 20,000 buffaloes, cows and oxen are slaughtered at the city slaughterhouses every month for the supply of 160,000 kg of beef and 140,000 kg of mutton daily. An average 600,000 kilogram of meat is consumed in the city daily. Half of which constitutes poultry and fish and the remaining half mutton and beef.

Mutton and beef supplies for Lahorites come from the Kot Kamboh, Shahdara, Baghbanpura and Saddar slaughterhouses. About 75 per cent of the supplies come from the Kot Kamboh slaughterhouse where an average 7,000 goats and sheep and 500 cows, oxen, buffaloes and camels are slaughtered daily for five days a week, except the two meatless days.