Guwahati: The BJP-headed Assam government Monday moved an amendment to the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021, which was passed just four months before.
The state’s Industry and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary tabled the Assam Cattle Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 2021, on the first day of the winter session of the assembly.
In August this year, the state assembly had passed the Assam Cattle Preservation Bill, 2021, aiming to regulate the slaughter, consumption and transportation of cattle, despite stiff opposition from non-BJP parties, several of whom had staged a walkout. Opposition parties including Congress, AIUDF and CPI(M) had suggested that the bill be referred to a select committee.
The act prohibits the slaughter of cattle without a certificate from a competent authority, and the transport of cattle without a valid permit.
The amendment bill includes a clause which does not prohibit the transport of cattle throughout the state, but only to “any other place in a district within the state which shares international border with any foreign country”.
The amendments
The government has suggested amendments to five sections of the Act. Four amendments were suggested to Section 7, “prohibition on transport of cattle”.
The first proposed change is to a sub-section, according to which “no person shall transport or offer transport or cause to be transported any cattle from any place of other state to any place within the state, the slaughter whereof is punishable under this act”. The amendment bill includes the words “of Assam” to specify the state where slaughter of cattle has been prohibited.
A proposed amendment to the fourth sub-section states that only agencies or farms that have been registered with the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department of Assam maybe issued permit to transport cattle “for bonafide agricultural or animal husbandry purposes or for transportation of cattle for trade for the said purposes”.
In the amendment bill, the exception to the prohibition now dictates that permission needn’t be sought for carrying cattle to a grazing field or for agricultural or animal husbandry purposes within the state, where earlier this was limited to the scope of a “particular district”.
According to Section 11 of the Act, a police officer “not below the rank of sub-inspector or a registered veterinary officer” shall have the power to enter and inspect the premises where they have reason to believe an offence has been committed. The police officer can seize materials, carcasses, cattle or the vehicle which is “likely to be used in commission of the offences” and is required to report such seizure to the judicial magistrate.
The amendment bill includes two inclusions to the section dealing with the seized materials. According to an inclusion, “no person and his/her family members, against whom a case has been registered under the provisions of this Act, shall alienate their moveable or immovable property in any manner” if there’s reason to believe that the property has been acquired within six years of the case being registered and from the income earned through the sale or transport of cattle.
The bill will be discussed in the assembly this week.
The controversy
Before Assam, similar acts dealing with the slaughter of cattle have been passed in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
Congress MLA Siddeque Ahmed had contended that the act could trigger communal tensions, a charge that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma dismissed.
“There is no bad intention behind bringing this law. We only said don’t eat it (beef) where Hindus and other non-beef-eating communities live. This will promote communal harmony,” Sarma had said.
A significant number of suppliers of meat in the Northeast, which is home to large beef-eating communities, is in Assam. As a result, the act was also criticised for the ramifications it could have on the eating habits of the region.
(Edited by Neha Mahajan)
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