RAWALPINDI: The district administration has issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) to 216 charity organisations to collect animal hides on Eidul Azha.

The Punjab government had banned collection of hides without permission of the district administration and asked the local police to take action against violators.

According to the district administration, 231 applications were received from mosques and seminaries, non-government organisations/trusts and purchasers out of which six were rejected and decision on nine was pending.

The senior official of the district administration said 132 applications from mosques and seminaries were received out of which five were rejected and six were pending. Similarly, 18 NGOs and trusts applied for NOC to collect animal hides out of which one was rejected and three were granted permission, he said.

“As many as 81 animal hide purchasers were given permission to carry out work on Eidul Azha while adopting all standard operating procedures (SOPs),” the official said.

He said applications were vetted that no organisation was involved in any anti-state activity and asked them to follow the SOPs defined by the provincial government.

“The Punjab home department had provided a list of banned outfits and no such organisation was given NOC,” he said, adding that a complaint cell and monitoring teams had been formed to check such activity.

He said those organisations that had obtained the NOC could set up stalls, however, it would be mandatory for them to keep a copy of the permission letter at each stall or else the stall would be removed.

He said the organisations would also have to provide details of how many hides they had collected during Eid days.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2021