With the shortage of beef hitting into its third week, the Council for Social Justice and Peace, a social outreach arm of Goa’s influential Church has accused the Government of not doing enough to ensure that the red meat is made available after a High Court order allowed monitored slaughtering of bulls at Goa’s sole legal abattoir — the Goa Meat Complex.
“CSJP views with disappointment the failure of the Government to intervene and act with a sense of fairness and justice to the meat traders and those who consume beef as an essential part of their diet,” Fr Savio Fernandes, the executive secretary of the CSJP, said in a statement to the Press.
The CSJP has already called on officials of the Goa Meat Complex seeking an immediate solution to the issue and asking that the Government act with a sense of urgency in order to ensure that the food and employment of the minority communities in the State are protected.
For a week the High Court had stopped slaughter of cattle at the GMC and constituted a committee to look into the illegalities as alleged by a petitioner, the Govansh Raksha Abhiyan, an NGO.
A three-member committee appointed by the High Court to look into the allegations has confirmed the allegations.
The High Court later permitted the slaughter of animals but with stringent conditions including the ban on slaughter of animals from outside the State, a ban on killing of bovines below the age of 12, and other strictures regarding transportation.
Fr Fernandes said the order of the High Court was “an infringement on the religious rights of the minorities.”
“The recent interim order of the High Court of Bombay in Goa has literally crippled the functioning of the Goa Meat Complex having wide repercussions on the livelihood of the meat traders and the large number of consumers both of whom belong to the minority community,” Fernandes.
Beef traders have already held a dharna raising issues about the livelihood and trade.
The stoppage of Goa’s sole legally functioning abattoir, the Goa Meat Complex, has kept beef off the counters and off the menu in restaurants in the State. And beef on the black market has hit an unprecedented Rs350 per kg, more than Rs200 the usual rate.
The CSJP has now demanded that the Chief Minister act to prove his secular credentials.
“We demand that the Chief Minister meet afflicted groups as a matter of urgency and demonstrate that he truly means to be equitable to all religious communities,” Fernandes said.