Twitter
Advertisement

Beef ban: Sudhir Mungantiwar tries to take Congress by the horns

While the state government is facing flak from the opposition and stakeholders over beef ban, finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar tried to turn the tables on the Congress by pointing out that senior Congress leader Motilal Vora was among those who had demanded a ban on bull slaughter.

Latest News
article-main
Representational pic
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

While the state government is facing flak from the opposition and stakeholders over beef ban, finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar tried to turn the tables on the Congress by pointing out that senior Congress leader Motilal Vora was among those who had demanded a ban on bull slaughter.

Speaking in the assembly on Wednesday, Mungantiwar, who was among those who pursued the bill and the presidential assent for it, noted that while a Congress government had proscribed the killing of cows in Maharashtra in 1976, some states under its rule in the past too had imposed similar curbs.

He added that Mahatma Gandhi had made a case for the ban on slaughter of cow progeny (govansh) in 1923 in his weekly journal 'Harijan.' The finance minister said that apart from Vora, who is a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, veteran Gandhian Justice (retired) Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari too had made a similar demand. "(Why are we) being criticised over the cow progeny slaughter ban?"

Mungantiwar said that a government-appointed committee had said that states where such bans were in place had seen an increase in milk and fertiliser production.

On concerns by some legislators regarding people losing jobs due to the ban, Mungantiwar said that this report had said that the problem would exist for some days but alternatives to the use of these animal products in cosmetics and fertilisers would also come forward.

He also questioned contentions about some 20 lakh people in slaughterhouses being affected by the ban, and asked how these figures could stand when around 3.52 lakh bulls were culled annually. "Does this mean six people are involved in slaughtering one bull?"

However, Imtiaz Jaleel of AIMIM pointed out that this statistic did not pertain to just those engaged in slaughterhouses, but also people in the leather industry, transport and agriculture who would be affected by the ban.

If space permits

While a ban on cow slaughter is already in force in the state since 1976, the government recently extended the curb to bulls and bullocks by getting the President's assent to the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 1995. Under the new rules, offenders risk Rs 10,000 as fines and five years in jail. However, the slaughter of buffaloes is allowed.

The ban has led to fears among beef traders, transporters and the leather industry, which say they will be impacted by it. These stakeholders point out that beef was a cheap source of protein for people from the lower socio-economic strata and the ban would affect already stressed farmers who would find it tough to dispose of their cattle. Moreover, these animal products and by-products were also used in industries like medicine and sugar production.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement