Although it has been three weeks since the lifting of lockdown restrictions, the supply of meat in the city remains limited due to a still-closed Deonar abattoir. Around 1,500 people, whose livelihoods are tied to the abattoir, are desperate to resume work. A proposal for reopening is awaiting the nod from civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal.

The Bombay Suburban Beef Dealers Welfare Association wrote to the civic chief in the first week of June asking to resume operations. "Traders, workers, shopkeepers and the staff have had no income for three months. In Vashi, meat supply has resumed. It is high time they start the Deonar Abattoir so that incomes resume and Mumbaikars get affordable meat," Mohammed Qureshi, president of the association said.