Indian Australian billionaires ban workers from eating meat on their property

PERTH - Indian Australian billionaires Pankaj and Radhika Oswal have banned workers building their Peppermint Grove mansion from eating meat, attracting the ire of the Western Australian construction union.

The building workers have been told that they cannot eat ham sandwiches or meat pies at the building site of the 70 million dollar mega-mansion.

Once completed, the Taj-on-Swan mansion will be the biggest home in Australia, on the most expensive block of land. It is located in the exclusive suburb of Peppermint Grove in Perth.

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union Western Australian assistant secretary Joe McDonald said the ban was “absolutely wrong”.

“She still wants them to build her $70 million mansion, but she’s telling them what they’re going to eat . . . it’s wrong,” he said.

“I respect everybody’s right to practise their religion, but I totally disagree with anyone forcing it on others. That has caused more wars and destruction throughout the world than anything else I know of,” he added.

Workers at the site said yesterday there was one small shed at the bottom of the site which they were allowed to eat meat in.

A source close to the Oswals, who did not want to be named, said some workers had continued to eat meat on the site “just to spite them”.

Oswal, who is in New York this week helping his wife prepare for the launch of her vegetarian fast-food chain, Otarian, defended the meat ban, saying “This is our home”.

Radhika Oswal has previously accused the meat industry of “raping the earth”.

“Meat eating is creating bad karma and you are also creating a vicious cycle. It’s destroying us environmentally, economically and socially. I’m putting my money where my mouth is. I’ve always been a vegetarian so I have always felt strongly about it,” she said.

The house, expected to be finished at the end of 2011, will have a gymnasium the size of a regular Perth house, a beauty salon, an observatory, parking for 17 cars and a swimming pool 10 times igger than the average backyard. (ANI)