Meat ban by Indian-origin billionaire stirs row

Indian-born billionaire Pankaj Oswal and his wife Radhika have told workers building their $70 million mansion in this Australian city that they should not consume meat on the site, stirring a controversy with a construction union hitting out at the ban.

The massive mansion, located in the exclusive suburb of Peppermint Grove here, is expected to be finished at the end of next year. It will have a swimming pool 10 times bigger than the average back yard, an observatory, a gymnasium the size of a regular Perth house, a beauty salon as well as parking for 17 cars, Perth Now reported Sunday.

The Taj-on-Swan mansion is likely to become the largest home in the country, on the most expensive block of land.

The Western Australian construction union criticised the ban on building workers eating ham sandwiches and meat pies at the building site.

The ban was ‘absolutely wrong’, said Joe McDonald, who is Western Australian assistant secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.