Par panel recommends halt on slaughter of milch buffaloes for

A Parliamentary panel has come down heavily on government agencies for allowing slaughter of milch buffaloes for meat export and has recommended that rules should be amended to make it clear that only bulls can be butchered for meat.
"The Committee strongly condemns slaughtering of female milch buffaloes and recommends that the government should immediately stop export of meat of female buffaloes," the Rajya Sabha Committee on Privileges said in its latest report.
It said despite regulation, the procedure followed to certify each and every animal by the veterinary professionals is a mere formality and "eyewash."
The panel said veterinary inspectors "succumb to inducements" and pass animals not really productive as useless and fit for slaughter.

"The Committee in this background strongly recommends for amendment in the current Foreign Trade Policy with reference to meat export policy which reads 'meat of buffalo (both male and female) fresh and chilled as permissible items for export' to read as 'Meat of buffalo (strictly male only)'," the report said.
It also recommended that all APEDA recognised export houses for meat export should not be allowed to export until they involve themselves in actual rearing of buffaloes.

The Committee came out with the report based on a petition requesting review of Meat Export Policy.
The petition was moved former Rajya Sabha member S S Ahluwalia.

The petition contended that the Meat Export Policy was introduced by the central government in 1991-1992 to tide over the acute foreign exchange shortage in the country.
The petition claimed that the Meat Export Policy is violative of the various State Animal Preservation Laws.