BELAGAVI
Beef traders and farmers in Karnataka are hopeful of a relaxation in the Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Ordinance, after activists from across Karnataka filed a PIL in the Karnataka High Court, challenging the constitutional validity of the ordinance.
The Karnataka High Court has now sought the response from the Karnataka government to the petition filed challenging the ordinance.
The bill had been introduced and passed in the Karnataka Assembly during its Winter Session in December last year and the government sought to introduce the act by an ordinance through the Karnataka governor’s assent in December.
This infuriated activists and traders, who filed a PIL challenging the ordinance.
Mohammed Arif Jameel, a social worker from Bengaluru, filed the petition stating that such a law denies the poor and marginalised persons the cheapest source of protein, as over 180 million Indians, including Dalits, Muslims, Christians, Adivasis and other backward castes consume beef.
The petitioner has also contended that the new law breaches the fundamental rights of citizens, including the constitutional provision of right to livelihood under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Moreover, apart from imposing economic burden on farmers, cattle traders, and butchers, it will be also misused as a tool to harass minorities by saffron and right wing activists, the petitioner stated.
“This Ordinance is also a violation of right to carry trade or business leading to violation of Article 19(g) of the Constitution and also deprives citizens to food of their choice,” Jameel told media persons, while reacting to the intervention of the Karnataka High Court.
Similar petitions have been also filed in Karnataka High Court by other activists and traders opposing the act that deprives citizens from their fundamental right to food of their choice.
While the new act has put the farmers in a quandary as they cannot transport or sell their unproductive cattle, the traders and butchers are complaining that consumption of buffalo meat has come down drastically, due to which several families are facing tough times in making both ends meet.
“Due to the act, fear lingers in the minds of all those associated with the trade. Certainly, we are going through a tough time, unless the government gives certain relaxations in the ordinance,” a leading beef trader told The Goan.
