PANAJI
Goa’s meat traders’ collective, Quraishi’s Meat Traders Association of Goa, may have formally petitioned Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to intervene and resolve the shortage of beef faced in the State for a second week, but fear no solution anytime soon.
“Unless the issues raised by the striking butchering and meat trading associations in Karnataka and Maharashtra are resolved by their respective State governments, there is no hope for any resolution for us in Goa,” said Manna Bepari, the Association’s president.
Goa has been reeling under an acute shortage of beef, with retail fresh meat stalls shut for a second week in most cities of the State.
The crux of the problem, according to Bepari, is the protest in the two neighbouring States, with the community of butchers and animal traders going on strike seeking withdrawal of stringent restrictions in the laws which virtually cripple the trade.
Another demand of the striking butchers and traders in Maharashtra and Karnataka is protection from cow vigilantes who take the law into their own hands and obstruct the trade.
“The demand is that only police, along with a veterinary doctor, should be permitted to conduct raids and take action, not NGOs and vigilantes,” Bepari told The Goan, adding that lifting the ban on the slaughter of ageing bulls used in agricultural fields is another demand of the striking traders.
He said a delegation of Quraishi leaders in Maharashtra is expected to have an audience with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on August 13, where there is hope of some compromise and resolution to the strike.
“Also, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has verbally assured them that their issues will be resolved and to call off the strike. But Quraishi leaders are asking for written assurances to end the strike,” Bepari said.
Maharashtra and Karnataka cater to most of Goa’s demand for live animals to be slaughtered at the abattoir of the Goa Meat Complex in Usgao. Since the strike in those States, they have been unable to bring any animal for slaughter here, he added.
The earliest this logjam in Maharashtra or Karnataka can be resolved is after August 16, Bepari said.
Goa’s demand for beef is in the region of 20 tonnes daily, and the State does not have a bovine population large enough to meet this demand.
According to Bepari, the local breeds of bulls and buffaloes are small in stature and unfit for slaughter at the Usgao abattoir.
“The Meat Complex abattoir slaughters only big animals. So the animals we get in Goa do not meet the criteria,” he said.
The beef shortage issue had briefly come up in the recently concluded monsoon session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, where Sawant had informed that it was due to the strike in Karnataka and Maharashtra. The Chief Minister had also assured to talk to both the State governments about it.
