BENGALURU: After the Legislative Council was adjourned on Tuesday without transacting any business following unruly scenes, the state government is considering promulgating an ordinance on the anti-cow slaughter Bill.“We will issue an ordinance,” Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhu Swamy said after the House was adjourned. “The ordinance will be issued anytime,” he added.
However, the Janata Dal (Secular) which had supported the government in getting the Karnataka Land Reforms Bill 2020 passed in the Council and had also extended its support to the ruling party efforts to oust the Council chairman, has made it clear that it will not support the cow Bill.The Bill prohibiting illegal sale, purchase and transportation of cattle, including cow, calf and buffalo was passed in the assembly last week and it was to be tabled in the council on Tuesday by Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu Chavan.
It was part of the day’s agenda but the House was adjourned. In a statement issued earlier in the day (before the council was adjourned), JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda reiterated his party stand on opposing the bill. He said it will create unrest in the society. The Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act 1964 is already in place and it has provisions to punish those who violate it, Gowda said.
He added that in 2010 the then BJP government had introduced Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill-2010 that proposed to increase the punishment and fine from one to seven times keeping a community in mind and to target them. It was referred to the President by the Governor and in 2013 after the change of government in the state, it was withdrawn.