Panaji, March 27 (IANS): Asserting that beef is an essential part of the diet of the minority community, Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Friday asked animal rights activists to tone down their agitation against beef imported from neighbouring states,

Parsekar asked the activists to 'go easy' on the issue even as a ruling legislator demanded that cow slaughter in the state be stopped.

The chief minister also asked the activists to conduct raids on illegal beef consignments and on other animal rights' violations with police escorts, even as the state legislative assembly discussed a recent attack on two animal rights activists, who were tracking a consignment of illegal beef from Belgaum in North Karnataka to Goa.

"For minorities, this is part of their cuisine and they need beef. Please see if you can ensure that beef imported from neighbouring states comes in. They are Goans (minority community). This is part of their food," Parsekar said.

"They (animal rights activists) should take help from the police in instances where offences are committed against animals. They should not go on their own," he added.

In course of the debate, Lavu Mamledar, an MLA from the ruling Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party demanded that "cow slaughter in Goa should be stopped".

Christians and Muslims account for nearly 35 percent of the state's population of 1.5 million.

Supply of fresh beef in Goa has been erratic ever since the Akhil Vishwa Jai Shrirama Gosanvardhan Kendra, an NGO which backed a ban on cattle slaughter, petitioned the Bombay High Court bench in Panaji in 2013 for a ban on cattle slaughter, citing atrocities on cattle being brought to the Goa Meat Complex, the state's only abattoir operated by a government corporation.