MUMBAIi: Days after the state government directed police to invoke the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against cattle smugglers and illegal slaughterhouses, mayor Ritu Tawde and other Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) functionaries in the city asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to issue a circular enforcing a blanket ban on goat sacrifices in housing societies and chawls during Bakr Eid.Muslim community leaders cautioned that such a circular could give rise to law and order issues. Earlier this month, BMC had granted permission for religious animal slaughter at more than 100 designated locations in the city. There has been no official response to the demand from the civic body. The three-day festival begins on Thursday.Former MP Kirit Somaiya from BJP had a meeting with the mayor, civic standing committee chairman Prabhakar Shinde, BJP’s leader in BMC Ganesh Khankar and civic garden committee chairman Hetal Gala, following which each of the elected representatives sent a letter to BMC chief Ashwini Bhide to push for the ban demand.BMC already has stringent rules in place for religious animal slaughter.Qureshi jamats and community leaders called the latest push by BJP functionaries to prevent slaughter at even housing complexes that give NOCs a “dog whistle”. “Precautions like covering the place of slaughter are taken. Preventing slaughter will infringe on citizens’ rights to celebrate their festivals,” said Imran Babu Qureshi, national vice-president, All India Jamiatul Quresh.Asif Farooqui, Bandra resident and general secretary of Mumbai Congress, said were such a blanket ban to be enforced, it could allow anti-social elements to foment trouble. “BMC and police do not have the manpower to peep into every chawl and residential area to check whether animal sacrifice is happening there. How does it disturb outsiders if no society member objects to goat slaughter on the society premises?”In a letter addressed to additional municipal commissioner Vipin Sharma, Somaiya said the matter had also been discussed at a joint meeting at Mayor’s Hall on May 21, following which “civic authorities and political representatives reiterated the need to ensure that animal sacrifice does not take place in residential premises”.
