Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday reprimanded BMC officials for lack of basic facilities and no progress in modernisation of the Deonar abattoir. He said he would convene a special meeting within a month to resolve all long-term issues related to the Bakr-id festival. Mr Chavan, on Monday, called a high-level meeting to review preparations for the festival that would be celebrated on October 16. According to the sources, the chief minister expressed his discontent with the lack of progress in Deonar abattoir’s modernisation. The '103-crore proposal to modernise the abattoir was forwarded to, and sanctioned by, the Centre but there has been no progress on it. Additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar told the CM that though the project had been sanctioned, the grant is yet to be received. “The first phase of the project needs '30 crore and so the CM told the BMC officials to arrange funds from the urban development department for now, in order to prevent further delay in starting off the project,” an official said, on condition of anonymity. Another major issue raised in the meeting by representatives of the Muslim community, was lack of abattoirs in the whole Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). “There is only one abattoir in the whole MMR but the Muslim population has increased. Thus, it is necessary to have one more abattoir in MMR to which the CM responded in a positive manner,” said Baba Siddique, a Congress MLA from Bandra, who was also present in the meeting. Sources said that Mr Chavan also assured that he would convene a special meeting after Bakr-id to resolve the issue of abattoirs. He too, was of the view that there should be another abattoir to reduce the burden on the Deonar abattoir.
