Srinagar, Aug. 11 -- Kashmir reeks - literally. The stench isn't just from 3,000-3,500 kg of rotten meat seized in a single week; it's from a Food Safety bureaucracy that has turned vigilance into theatre and regulation into ransom. Authorities themselves admit they're now recovering putrid meat thrown on roadsides, nallahs, even rivers - because the racket feels cornered and is dumping evidence in our public spaces.

Meanwhile, the same department proudly announces "action": Forty four street vendors fined a grand total of Rs 56,000 - a mockery of deterrence that wouldn't scare a tea stall, let alone a supply chain peddling poison.

The rot behind the rot

Unlicensed chaos: who let the streets drown?

Srinagar has 6,000+ street vendors -...