PANAJI
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari on Monday held a meeting in Delhi with representatives of his home State Maharashtra's 'Quraishi Samaj' body in a bid to resolve the stalemate in the beef market where butchers and animal traders are on strike for nearly a fortnight now.
Goa's traders are pinning their hopes of the outcome of this meeting in Delhi on Tuesday, according to Manna Bepari who heads Goa's meat traders' collective, Quraishi's Meat Traders Association of Goa.
Bepari said, information he has received from his counterparts in Mumbai reveals that the meeting with Gadkari was fruitful and some of the issues raised by the striking butchers and animal traders are expected to be resolved within this week.
In Goa, meanwhile, traders continue to face a huge shortage of supplies as no meat is coming into the State either from Maharashtra or Karnataka.
"Currently we are getting just five tonnes of beef from Telangana when our daily requirement is about 20 tonnes," Bepari said.
Gadkari has reportedly promised that he will take up the matter with the Devendra Fadnavis government in Mumbai on top priority and resolve the contentious issues raised through their strike within seven days.
One of the demands raised via the strike is the withdrawal of stringent restrictions in the laws which are crippling the trade.
Bepari said, it is not known whether the demand of the striking butchers that raids being carried out to check cow slaughter should be done only by the police and veterinary doctors and not by non-official third parties.
However, the demand for removal of the condition that trucks and transportation vans used for cattle should be exclusive and no other cargo can be transported alongside, has been accepted in-principle by Gadkari, according to those who were at the meeting, Bepari said.
Traders in Goa are hoping that the strike will end and supplies of both meat and cattle for slaughter at the Goa Meat Complex Abattoir at Usgao will resume by this weekend.
