Assam Cattle Preservation Act 2021: Allows Ban on Beef Sale
GUWAHATI: No person will be permitted to sell beef in the areas inhabited long by Hindus, Sikh, Jain, and other non-beef eating communities in Assam according to the Preservation of Cattle Bill, presented by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in the assembly, on Monday. Similarly, the Bill seeks to impose a ban on the selling of beef in an area of 500 radius from temples or other religious places of non-beef eating communities in the state.
The violators will be punished with three to eight years imprisonment and a fine, once the Bill turns into Act.
According to the Cattle Preservation Bill, the selling of beef will be permitted only in the places authorized by competent authorities. The Bill, which has drawn mixed response, also seeks to ban illegal cattle trading in the state.
On the other hand, Sri Ganga Go-Shala located at Karibil Bengali village under Halem Revenue Circle in Gohpur subdivision in Biswanath district has been focusing mainly on cow rearing and cow worship since 1889. The number of cows increased to about 500 when the police administration started to recover smuggled cows in the district and handed them over to Sri Ganga Go-Shala Temple a few months back.
It was not possible for the temple authorities to bear the responsibility of such a large number of cows. So, the Dhyan Foundation, one of the voluntary organizations from New Delhi, came forward to take over the responsibility of overseeing the cows. A volunteer of Dhyan Foundation, TN Chandrani, who hails from Hyderabad, was appointed as the in-charge of cow rearing in Sri Ganga Goshala in July 2020. They also appointed Mahendra Raut, a veterinarian from Madhya Pradesh and a supervisor Subhash Shribas of Madhya Pradesh, along with a total number of 20 employees, including night chowkidars and cattle herders. Three large-size cowsheds were also constructed with public donations under the initiative of Shri Ganga Go-Shala Temple Management Committee led by president Shankarlal Agarwal and secretary Nandu Acharya to rear the cows.