TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: With cries of ‘Give us beef’ getting only louder with each passing day, Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza has openly batted for beef supply to Goa, even as Catholic MLAs from Salcete supporting the BJP government sought the intervention of the ‘Raksha Mantri’ for uninterrupted supply of beef to the State.
With exactly a month to go for the Easter celebrations after the Lenten season of fasting and penance, the ruling MLAs appeared a worried lot over the beef shortage in the State. They are apprehensive of a backlash in the minority dominated areas, with an impression gaining ground that beef supply is hit with members of right wing organisations stalling beef supply at the border areas and ‘raiding’ beef consignment coming through the railways.
The deputy chief minister was more forthright in his opinion when he fully agreed that beef eating Goans are facing tough times over the beef shortage. “I am a beef eater. Many Goans are in trouble over the abrupt closure of the supply. Beef is the staple food of a large number of Goans. The supply should start now,” D’Souza told Herald during his visit to the South Goa district Collectorate on Thursday morning.
He did not stop there. Expressing his unhappiness over the High Court order which has allowed NGOs in the Goa Meat complex to certify the health of the animals, D’Souza, who also holds the Law portfolio, said “the High Court order has made these NGOs to sit in the slaughter house. They are not allowing animals to be slaughtered on grounds they are fit for work. My standing is that only the veterinary doctors should certify the animals and not the NGOs,” even as he informed Herald that he has told Goa Meat Complex Chairman Lyndon Monteiro to import beef into Goa if the Goa Meat Complex cannot meet the requirements.
Incidentally, when Herald contacted RDA Minister Mickky Pacheco, Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado and Benaulim MLA Caitu Silva to comment on the beef shortage in Goa, the trio said they would take up the matter with the ‘Raksha Mantri’ aka Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. “I will speak to Parrikar and seek to know from him why beef eating Goans are denied the meat. The government should immediately intervene. One cannot thrust an agenda on the people. If someone wants to have only vegetables, they cannot deny others from consuming beef,” remarked Caitu.
His GVP supremo Mickky Pacheco said he and other MLAs share the concern of Goans over the beef shortage. “I will speak to Lyndon Monteiro, who is GVP general secretary. I am confident that a favourable solution would be worked out before Easter,” he added.
Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado too joined the bandwagon for the early resumption of beef supply to Goa. “I am meeting the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today. We will seek his intervention to find a solution to the imbroglio,” Avertan said.
