Lucknow:
In a fresh attack on the Congress over its election manifesto, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday accused the party of “aiming to allow consumption of beef” if voted to power.
While addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Yogi Adityanath accused the opposition bloc INDIA of 'promoting beef'.
“The Hindu community in this country completely abstains from consuming beef as they consider the cow sacred. Congress' attempt to grant exceptions to Muslims in this regard is unacceptable to all,” he said.
Earlier on Friday, the UP CM had alleged at an election rally that the Congress party wants to give minorities the right to eat beef.
It is worth mentioning here that UP already has strict laws against cattle slaughter, with a provision for up to 10 years in jail and fines of up to Rs 5 lakh. Moreover, there is a provision for seven years' imprisonment and fines up to Rs 3 lakh for cow mutilation.
The Uttar Pradesh government turned this into law by promulgating a cow slaughter ordinance in 2020.
Through the Uttar Pradesh Cow Slaughter Prevention (Amendment) Act 2020, the government has introduced numerous new provisions, intensifying regulations around cow slaughter in the state. This includes imposing severe penalties for cow slaughter or cow trade in Uttar Pradesh.
Under this legislation, the penalty for repeat cow smuggling offenders can be doubled, up to a maximum of ten years in prison. Unlike the previous law, which lacked provisions for minimum punishment for cow slaughter or smuggling, the amended law now prescribes a minimum punishment of three years and a minimum fine of Rs 3 lakh for cow slaughter.
Similarly, there is a provision for minimum punishment of at least one year and minimum fine of Rs 1 lakh for mutilating gauvansh. The law clearly states that persons who cause physical damage to a cow or gauvansh, endangering its life or causing mutilation, will be liable to imprisonment for a period of one to seven years along with fines ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh .
According to the amended law, if a seized cow is found intended for smuggling, the costs of its maintenance will be recovered from the suspect for a maximum of one year. The previous law lacked clarity on the measures against vehicles involved in the transport of cows or their meat, their owners or drivers. However, under the amended law, vehicle owners will also be considered guilty unless they can prove that they were unaware of the prohibited meat in their vehicles.
In addition, both the driver and operator will be held liable and their vehicles will be seized. All offenses under this legislation are non-bailable.
In 2020, the Yogi government promulgated an ordinance and later passed a law to implement it in the state.
The need for this law was felt because despite several amendments in the previous law, there was still laxity that hampered its effective implementation in line with public aspirations.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)