5,000 cops deployed at city abattoirs

Every police station in the city has deployed officers in areas that have slaughterhouses ahead of Bakri Id to ensure that the slaughter of bulls and bullocks don’t take place. Police teams, along with NGO volunteers, are scrutinising slaughterhouses and their surrounding areas and, according to sources, more than 5,000 officers are on the job.

The police has deployed a special force near Deonar Bakri Mandi to look into activities taking place inside and outside it.

DCP zone 6, Shahji Umap said, “Deonar Bakri Mandi is the only place from where goats are distributed all over Mumbai for the festival. Keeping this in mind, 300 police officers have been posted in and around the market. Other than this, we are keeping a close eye on all slaughterhouses.”

“Also, in Deonar Mandi a counting machine, which is being handled by four persons, has been installed to count goats that go inside and those that go outside after they are sold. The statistics get updated automatically on the indicator which is situated at the slaughterhouse,” Mr Umap added.

The duty hours of police officers deployed for the bandobast at Deonar has been reduced from 12 hours to eight hours because earlier, policemen posted there used fall ill after a short period of time due to the unhygienic conditions. The reduction in duty hours helps them work more efficiently, Mr Umap said.

He added that vehicles could now be parked near Deonar Mandi for free. “Earlier the contractor used to extort money from truck drivers and people who used to park vehicles. We had taken action and now the area has free parking,” he said.

A police officer added, “We have issued warnings to repeat offenders who were arrested in the past for robbery, half murder and creating communal problems and are monitoring them.”