Mumbai civic body lifts meat ban

BJP faces flak from Shiv Sena, urges administration to impose ban

Amid protests from all quarters, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) on Friday withdrew its ban on sale of meat and animal sacrifice for two days during the Jain fasting month of Paryushan. With this, only the ban imposed by the Maharashtra government has remained.

The BMC had banned sale of meat on September 13 and 18 while the government had banned it on September 10 and 17. This would mean that the city would now go without meat only on September 17, which, incidentally, is also Ganesh Chaturthi.

The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation had earlier announced a ban of nine days while the Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation had restricted sale of mutton and animal sacrifice for eight days.

The meat ban issue has snowballed into a major political issue in Maharashtra with the BJP facing flak from its alliance partner, the Shiv Sena, and other parties like the Congress, NCP and MNS. Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray urged the administration to impose the ban.

On the first day of ban on Thursday, the Shiv Sena and MNS openly defied the measure with their workers selling meat. The Opposition Congress and NCP also opposed the ban.
On Friday, during a hearing before a Bombay High Court division bench comprising Justice Anoop Mohta and Amjad Sayyed, MCGM's  counsel N V Walawalkar, announced the decision to withdraw its September 1 circular imposing a ban on slaughter and sale of mutton and chicken in the city on September 13 and 18.

The Bombay Mutton Dealers Association had filed a petition challenging the ban of the MCGM as well as the one imposed by the state government on September. A similar petition was also filed by Poultry Association.

“Keeping public interest and the sentiments of Mumbaikars in mind, it has been decided to withdraw the circular,” Walawalkar said.

During the hearing, the court also sought to know the rationale behind permitting sale of fish, seafood and eggs. “How are fish and eggs different? Killing them is not violent? What is the rationale behind such a decision,” it asked. Advocate General Anil Singh, however, said: “Fish dies the moment it is removed from water. Hence there is no death due to slaughter.”

Uniform policy

The Bombay High Court on Friday felt that there should be a uniform policy by the Maharashtra government on the issue of meat ban during the holy month of Paryushan.
“In Mira Bhayandar, the ban is for eight days while here in Mumbai, it is for four days.

Why cannot the government formulate a uniform policy that will be applicable to all the corporations and councils?” the bench suggested. “The ban is only on slaughter and sale of meat on those two days. There is no ban on consumption of meat. We are not going to go into people’s kitchen and say you cannot eat meat,” Singh said.