Ahmedabad: A day after it found a place in the civic body’s draft budget, a proposal to relocate a slaughterhouse for Rs 32 crore has been scrapped. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation had earmarked the fund to shift the existing facility in the Walled City to the city’s outskirts. However, BJP legislators and civic leaders objected to the plan, calling the move inappropriate.The rollback was announced on Thursday, a day after municipal commissioner Banchha Nidhi Pani presented the Rs 17,018 crore draft budget for 2026–27.Standing committee chairman Devang Dani said the proposal had been withdrawn after internal consultations. “A decision has been taken to withdraw the proposal. It was included in the draft budget by the administration, but party MLAs and other civic leaders felt it was not appropriate,” Dani said, adding that the standing committee was in agreement.The strongest objection came from Ellisbridge MLA Amit Shah, who opposed the allocation soon after the budget was presented. In a written message to the civic chief, Shah demanded that the provision be removed before the budget is finalised. “Allocating funds for a slaughterhouse goes against the BJP’s ideological stance. I had rejected a similar proposal during my tenure as mayor, despite pressure from higher authorities,” Shah told reporters.The now-withdrawn proposal aimed to relocate the slaughterhouse from the Geeta Mandir area to a 15,882 sq m plot in Shahwadi, under Behrampura ward, near the Pirana dump site. According to the draft budget, the new facility was to comply with the Supreme Court’s directions and the guidelines issued by the central and state govts.The plan outlined a “state-of-the-art” slaughterhouse with round-the-clock availability of doctors, antemortem inspection rooms, chilling facilities, air-conditioned vehicles for animal transport, separate slaughter units for small and large cattle, a rendering plant, and an effluent treatment plant for blood and waste treatment to ensure environmental compliance.Jamalpur MLA Imran Khedawala said the relocation proposal had been discussed earlier in coordination committee meetings. He pointed out that the existing slaughterhouse, located in Mirzapur under the Jamalpur ward, lies between the Jagannath Temple and the Geeta Temple. “Repeated requests were made to shift it so that religious sentiments are not hurt. I also received representations from religious individuals,” Khedawala said.The slaughterhouse was originally set up in 1903 under the Ahmedabad municipality, and came under the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s jurisdiction in 1950.AMC chief Banchha Nidhi Pani said the proposal was withdrawn due to its sensitive nature and a misunderstanding around its intent. “This was about shifting the slaughterhouse from the present location to Behrampura ward, not constructing a new one. We were following the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the ministry of environment, forests and climate change guidelines. But since it is a sensitive issue, the proposal has been withdrawn,” he said, adding that the standing committee had been informed.With the withdrawal, the issue is now expected to be formally discussed in the standing committee, after which the provision will be removed from the draft budget.With PTI inputs
