No intention to curb food choices, assure Union ministers

Two Union ministers have said that the government is not planning to impose food choices on the people. The assurance comes after the Centre’s last month notification to prohibit cattle trade at open livestock markets for slaughter was seen as a beef ban in the country.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Aizawl on Monday that the Centre will not impose any restrictions on people’s choices of food. He was responding to a question on a protest by locals against the Centre’s notification. Hundreds of people participated in a “beef ban bashing banquet” in Aizawl on Monday.

Singh’s comments come a day after the Meghalaya Assembly passed a resolution rejecting the Centre’s regulation.

Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan also said on Tuesday that the government does not want to “alter” the food habits of people and put businesses in the sector in “any kind of difficulty”.

“We drafted the rules after a Supreme Court directive. The notification was put in the public domain for a period of one month. Some suggestions came and were incorporated,” he said.

The regulation has faced bitter protests, especially from the meat export industry and states such as Kerala, West Bengal and those from the North-East as they permit cow slaughter. The Madras High Court had on May 30 stayed for four weeks the enforcement of the contentious notification.

Speaking to a news channel, Vardhan said that the Centre was revisiting the regulations and examining representations from meat and leather industry bodies. He said suggestions “are coming in and if people have any reservations, they can send them to the ministry and they will be looked at objectively.  “Now the matter is again in the Supreme Court,” he said.

On May 23, the Environment Ministry notified a new regulation that prohibited sale of cattle, including buffaloes, at livestock markets across the country.