TEAM HERALD
MARGAO/VASCO: Residents in the port town will miss their favourite beef dishes on Easter due to acute beef shortage at stalls and cold storages, despite promises by officials of Goa Meat Complex, while Salcete experienced a huge shortage of beef on the eve
of Easter with the cold storage owners and the Goa Meat complex indulging in a blame game over the shortage.
On Saturday morning, people were in for a disappointment when they found beef stalls closed and locked.
The stall owners informed Herald that they had been anxiously awaiting beef supply by Friday evening, as they had hoped to sell the meat by Saturday.
“Since beef supply did not reach the cold storage
units and beef stalls even by Saturday evening, we are
now hoping that beef will be supplied by Sunday
morning. However, we are unsure if people would want
to visit our beef stalls on Easter,” said a beef stall
owner.
Residents in the port town were clearly unhappy over
the prolonged beef shortage, despite the State
government’s assurances to supply beef to cold storage
units ahead of Easter.
“I was happy when the government announced that the
beef will be available at the stalls and other cold
storages before Easter,” said Peter Cardozo.
“I was surprised to find beef stalls closed and cold
storage owners informed me that there was no supply of
beef. This clearly shows that the Parsekar government
is fooling minorities in the port town and it is these
minorities who had helped the BJP government win both
seats,” said Cardozo.
“The BJP government has made a big mistake by
depriving Christians of beef during Easter and I will
personally tell all my friends not to vote for the BJP
candidates,” added Cardozo.
Bena D’Costa, who had also visited the beef stalls in
the hope of purchasing beef, was peeved at the
government. He blamed the Christian MLAs in the BJP
and the Congress for being mute spectators.
“It is surprising to see all Christian MLAs in the BJP
government sitting quiet when the people who had voted
them are suffering,” said D’Costa.
The cold storage owners in Salcete maintained that
they did not receive fresh stock of beef on Saturday,
Goa Meat Complex Chairman Lyndon Monteiro argued that
fresh stock of beef would have been supplied if the
cold storage owners had placed their orders.
A leading cold storage owner from Margao told Herald
that the cold storage owners had last received the
beef consignment on Good Friday. “We had received the
fresh beef on Good Friday. Today, we sold the meat and
the stock ran out by noon,” the owner said, whiled
conceding that many beef eaters were left with no
option than to return home disappointed.
Sources in the know said that though around 4.3 tonnes
of beef was supplied to the 60 cold storages in
Salcete, the supply fell short of the requirements.
The requirement is at least 8-10 tonnes of beef supply
to Salcete, said a cold storage owner.
Chairman of Goa Meat Complex Lyndon Monteiro, however,
begged to differ. “The Meat Complex cannot help if the
cold storage owners did not place their order in
advance. One should understand that the Meat Complex
is not a supplier of beef, but is only acting as a
facilitator for the beef supply from across the
border”, Lyndon maintained.
And, to drive home the point that the cold storage
owners did not place their orders in advance, Lyndon
said that none of the cold storage owners have placed
orders for fresh supply of beef either tomorrow or on
Monday.
“Till 8.10 am today, I have not received any call from
any cold storage owner placing order for supply of
beef either on Sunday or Monday”, Lyndon claimed.
