Bug led to slaughter permit goof-up

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has made it clear that the goof-up related to online permission given to an applicant named Neil Armstrong for goat slaughter for the occasion of Bakri-Eid was due to a software bug.

Efforts are on to find the technical glitch in the online system, said civic officials.

In a bizarre incident, a fictitious person named ‘Neil Armstrong’ was granted permission by the BMC through an online application system to slaughter five goats inside a courtroom in Bombay high court. Taking a serious note of the goof-up, the HC had slammed the online process of granting permission and asked the BMC to halt it till Monday.

“The goof-up resulted due to the software bug in the online system. We have started efforts to find the technical fault in the system. The error is expected to be removed in a couple of days,” said a senior civic official.

The BMC has started an online system for giving permissions to slaughter goats outside the abattoir. However Jiv Maitri Trust and VBK Jain filed a petition urging the HC to revoke the online system and declare that carrying out animal slaughter animal sacrifice on the occasion of Bakri-Eid outside Deonar abattoir as illegal under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Slaughter House) Rules.

According to civic officials, nearly two lakh goats are being slaughtered in the city on the occasion of Bakri-Eid. This year, so far 100 permissions have been given through the online system and 28,000 goats have been sold, said civic officials.