Kolhapur: Irked by officials' visit, mutton sellers suspend

Butchers shops in Kolhapur city of Maharashtra suspended sales for two hours on Tuesday following heated arguments with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials.

The flash strike saw long lines of customers forming before shops as people wanted to by mutton for New Year celebration, a shop owner said.

FDA officials visited a meat shop on Tuesday morning and made inquiries about rates, he said.

The area houses several mutton shops.

As the shopkeeper was busy handling customers, heated words were exchanged with FDA officials, and then all the shop keepers in the area suspended the sales for about two hours.

Finally, after the FDA officials' queries were answered, the shops opened around 2 pm, said a local municipal officer.

The western Maharashtra city, known for high consumption of mutton and also for dishes such as 'pandhra (white)' and 'tambda' (red) rassa (mutton curry), had recently seen a strike by customers over rising meat prices.

The district collector had to intervene and fix the rate of mutton at Rs 480 per kg.