Goa to seek changes in Centre's cattle notification

The BJP-led Goa government will be urging the Centre to make some changes in the notification banning sale and purchase of cattle at animal markets in view of the "apprehensions" it has left in the minds of local people.
Goa Agriculture Minister Vijai Sardesai today said he had taken up the issue with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who had agreed to write to the Centre about the state's views on the matter.
He said the notification had created apprehensions in the minds of Goans that the government wanted to turn all into vegetarians.
"I have discussed the issue with the Chief Minister and he said he will write to the Centre," Sardesai, leader of the Goa Forward Party, a partner in the ruling coalition in the coastal state, said.

"The state government is going to raise certain objections and suggest some corrections to the notification on the Prevention of Cruelty Towards Animal Act. A significant section of the people in Goa eat beef and there are doubts in their minds that need to be cleared," he said.
A Central minister had also spoken to Parrikar and asked him to write about the objections to the notification, Sardesai said.

The Centre recently banned the sale and purchase of cattle from animal markets for slaughter. The Environment Ministry notified the stringent Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

Sardesai said, "Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has already made a statement that the government is ready to tweak the rules to remove apprehensions in the minds of the people. We, as Goa Forward party, are giving a note to the CM."
The minister said Goa does not actually come under the ambit of these rules since it practically has no animal market.
"We do not have a yard where animals are sold. But since there are inter-state ramifications, there is an effect on Goa," he said.
The cattle for slaughter is brought to Goa mostly from neighbouring Karnataka.
Sardesai said it (notification) would impoverish the farmers and affect the hospitality industry, which is the backbone of Goa.

"Since the government is going to write to the Centre on our stand with regard to the rule, I assure every section of the Goan society that they need not worry," he added.
On the suggestions to be made to the Centre for modification of the rule, he said the Goa government might give some specific points.
"The notification talks of milk and draft animal. When draft animals become old, you have to kill them. They have spoken about all sorts of animals, including chicken and goats, which means people will have to turn vegetarian," he said.