Serving beef, consumption in public places in Assam to be banned: Sarma

The Assam government has decided to ban serving and consumption of beef in restaurants, hotels and public places, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Wednesday.

A decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet to amend the existing law on beef consumption to incorporate the new provisions.

"We have decided to ban serving and consumption of beef in restaurants, hotel and public places," he told a press conference here.

Sarma said the current law on beef consumption is strong but there has been no prohibition in consumption of beef at restaurants, hotels and religious or social gathering so far.

"Now, we have decided to make the law stronger to put a complete ban on consumption of beef in public places too in Assam," he said.

The chief minister said the meeting of the state cabinet, which he attended virtually from Delhi, also decided to broaden the road connecting Guwahati's Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi airport to the city from four lane to six lane.

He said a cabinet expansion will take place on December 7 when a few new ministers will take oath.

Briefing about his series of meetings he had in the national capital, Sarma said during his interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi he had submitted proposals for approval of various projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore.

These projects include enhancement of capacity of Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemical Limited to five million tonne, expansion of the Namrup fertiliser plant at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore and Guwahati ring road projects.

Sarma said his government is also planning to built an expressway from Guwahati to Silchar through Meghalaya at a cost of Rs 25,000 crore which will reduce the travel time between the two cities to just five hours from the present 12 hours.