Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan lambasts Centre's move to ban sale of cattle for slaughter, says move unconstitutional

Racheting up his attack on the Centre over the ban on the sale of cattle for slaughter at animal markets, Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday said that the Centre had no right to regulate cattle sale in states.

Issuing a line by line rebuttal to the Centre’s notification on the new cattle slaughter laws, Vijayan said that the BJP-led central government was ignoring the federal structure and was making an attempt “to encroach upon the powers of the states”

Vijayan was addressing the press after the state’s Cabinet meeting. He said that the state Cabinet is of the view that regulating sale of cattle is outside the Centre’s purview, adding that they will certainly question the legality of the new legislation in court.

Vijayan also quashed the government’s argument about animal rights, adding that slaughter of cattle for consumption is permitted under the law. He said that the all that the existing laws state is that there shouldn’t be aimless pain inflicted to the cattle while slaughtering.

He said that the people in his state do not need a lesson on food habits from BJP.

Malayalis have been following a traditional food habit, which is healthy and nutritious, and no one can change it, he said.

The Environment Ministry had last week notified the stringent Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, banning the sale and purchase of cattle at animal markets for the purpose of slaughter. The Centre’s rules define cattle as a bovine animal, including bulls, bullocks, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers and calves and camels. They also prohibit the establishment of an animal market within 25 kilometers of a state border and within 50 kilometers of the international border.

The decision has drawn flak from the opposition parties as well as various organisations who claim that it would hit the export and trade of meat and leather. “The state government will give all facilities to people to have food of their choice. There is no need for Keralites to learn it from anybody in New Delhi or Nagpur (headquarters of RSS),” Vijayan had said on Tuesday.

Minister for Local Administration KT Jaleel said the  state government would consider formulating a new legislation to skirt the ban. The Centre is trying to impose the RSS’s agenda of a uniform culture, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said in Kozhikode.

The agenda of the BJP’s recent Bhuwaneswar party conference was “one nation, one culture and one party and the saffron party is trying to impose it through the cattle ban”, he had said.

With inputs from PTI