Goa's Catholics not apprehensive about beef ban: Parrikar

Goan Catholics are not apprehensive about the beef ban issue in the state's Goan context, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Thursday.

He was responding to a query if in course of his campaign for the Panaji by-poll, Catholic voters had expressed their grievances about the beef ban narrative at the national level.

"Nothing is coming through. Those who have read and have knowledge, they know the situation vis a vis the Goan context," Parrikar said.

Catholics account for more than a quarter of the state's 1.5 million population and are a sizeable votebank in the Panaji assembly constituency.

The Goa Church has openly criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party regime, both at the Centre and the BJP-led coalition government in the state, accusing it of trying to clamp down on sale of beef, brazenly in the rest of India and subtly in the coastal state, where minorities and a sizeable chunk of the six million plus tourists who visit the state, eat it.

Parrikar, during the recently concluded monsoon session of the Goa legislative assembly however, said that the state government would take all steps possible to ensure supply of beef in the state.

--IANS

maya/vd