Scattered cattle slaughtering continues despite DCC-designated facilities in Dhaka

The roadside slaughtering of sacrificial animals continues in and around the capital as the Dhaka city authorities have failed to attract residents to use the designated spots to slaughter cattle during Eid-ul-Azha.

The Dhaka city corporations or DCCs have been making the arrangements for the past three years to ease pollution through an effective waste management, but with little success.

The authorities did not make it mandatory that all sacrificial animals should be slaughtered at the designated spot of the respective area while many Dhaka residents said they did not even know that such spots exist.

However, a ward councillor refuted their claim that there was lack of publicity by the city corporations. Dhaka South Mayor Sayeed Khokon hopes the 'trend will change' in the future.

bdnews24.com visited around a dozen of the 1,174 spots fixed by Dhaka North and South City Corporations on the Eid day on Saturday.

The city corporations kept an imam, a butcher, sheds and water at those spots.

Very few cattle were slaughtered at the spots, but nearby streets were stained by blood as the citizens opted to sacrifice the animals at alleys and courtyards. Streets were blocked in some areas during slaughtering.

At West Agargaon, Mobarak Hossain slaughtered a cow in front of his house instead of going to the DCC-designated spot at 60-feet street some few hundred metres away from his house.

"I didn't know about it. Besides, everyone is using the space in front of the house or the street to slaughter cattle," he said.

Ali Hossain, a muezzin of a mosque in Uttara, said he went to slaughter five cows and two goats at different houses in the area.

He also said he did not know that the city corporation designated a spot for slaughtering cattle at Road 27, Sector 7.

Many others in Utara, at Monipur and Pirerbagh in Mirpur, Jatrabarhi, Basabo and other areas said the same thing.

The only exception was Munshibarhi Road of Jarabarhi. Twenty cattle were slaughtered there until noon.

"People of our area slaughtered the cattle here and then took those home to cut the meat," said Dulal Munshi, a resident of the area.

Md Shah Alam, a Rural Electrification Board engineer, was slaughtering a cow on the main street in front of his house. He said the authorities fixed a spot for cattle slaughtering on the street last year, but no spot was designated nearby this year.

Ward 48 Councillor Abul Kalam said the city corporation announced the 12 spots in the area through loudspeakers. "People were also informed at local mosques," he said.

Dhaka South Mayor Sayeed Khokon said he held discussions with citizens and distributed leaflets to aware the people about the spots.

Speaking to the media after inaugurating the Eid cattle waste removal work at Dholaikhal in the afternoon, he said people were 'still unwilling' to use the spots.

"Slaughtering cows in front of the house has become a tradition. We are trying to inspire the people to use the fixed spots. I hope they will get used to with the matter gradually," he said.

City Corporation officials called for everyone's help to fulfil the promise of removing the waste within 24 hours.

Dhaka South City Corporation has opened a hotline for people to inform the authorities about waste. The number is 019611000999. 

Dhaka North City Corporation Chief Waste Management Officer MA Razzaq said the citizens were helping the workers remove the waste.

"Some areas are almost clean now," he said.