ahmedabad the gujarat high court on monday slammed the state government for soft peddling when it comes to taking action against meat shops and slaughterhouses that operate without licencesthe high court summoned the food safety commissioner and the principal secretary of the urban housing and urban development department with the observation that the state machinery is pushed to act against erring mutton shops and slaughterhouses at a snails pace these officials will have to tell the court what punitive steps they take against unlicenced meat shopsthe hc demanded strict action by the authorities when the state government could not reply to its query about how many mutton shops or slaughterhouses of the 2602 that are run without licences have been closed the courts question came after the gujarat state legal services authority gslsa through its district chapters conducted a survey of 4323 mutton and chicken shops in the state and found that nearly 60 are run without licences issued by the appropriate authoritiesthe gslsa report from 33 districts revealed that of the surveyed shops only 655 shops 15 sell stamped meat and the other 3622 shops do not follow the law the surveyors found 2507 shops where hygiene norms were not followed the commissioner of food safety also filed an affidavit and stated that of 2602 shops selling meat in unhygienic conditions prosecutions have been launched against 1108 shopkeepers similarly cases have been filed against 1160 shopkeepers of the 2622 shops that are selling unstamped meat the state submitted that local authorities have been directed to take action under the gujarat municipalities act and the gujarat provincial municipal corporation actthe bench of chief justice aravind kumar and justice ashutosh shastri found the governments action too little and said that mere forwarding of letters would not serve the purpose when peoples health is at stake the court has sought an affidavit by january 30 from the authorities on action taken against erring shops or slaughterhousesthe bench also observed that district committees formed to look into the functioning of slaughterhouses and food shops have been found wanting in the performance of their duties the chief justice insisted on following hygiene standards particularly in the sale of red meat and questioned the state government why it is hesitant in taking action against shops that are run without licenceson the state governments silence on the sealing of unlicensed mutton shops the bench said this softpeddling attitude on the part of the state is not acceptable more reasonable steps are expected from a welfare state