It’s not just beef, it’s about livelihood: Farmers to challenge cattle sale ban in SC

Farmers are planning to approach the Supreme Court against restrictions imposed by the Centre on cattle sale and slaughter recently.

New Delhi, June 3: While most of the protests over the recent restrictions imposed by the Centre on cattle sale and slaughter surrounded around ban on eating beef, a large numbers of farmers and others involved in the cattle-related trade raised the issue of attack on their livelihood.

Now, farmers are planning to approach the Supreme Court against the recent controversial announcement made by the ministry of environment which imposed various restrictions on sale of cattle, including cows, buffaloes and camels, at animal markets across India.

According to The Telegraph, the All India Kisan Sabha, the farmers' wing of the CPM, has decided to approach the Supreme Court against the new rules banning cattle sale for slaughter at animal markets.

In the farmers' petition to the apex court, one farmer from every state and Union territory will be made a co-petitioner to underscore the wide-ranging impact of the rules.

"Many who live off the cattle economy constitute the poorest among the peasantry. They will be the hardest hit," said Sabha general secretary Hannan Mollah.

Mollah added that the animal husbandry accounted for 7.65 per cent of the GDP and 26 per cent of the agrarian GDP.

Sabha official and former Marxist MLA PK Krishnaprasad said the curbs had demolished the bargaining capacity of small and marginal farmers, who earlier sold their non-productive cattle in the market and bought younger animals with the cash. They would now have to sell locally.

"The Union finance minister says there is no nationwide ban on cattle slaughter but the amended rules have made sale of cattle for slaughter virtually impossible," Krishnaprasad said.

"First you create a climate where vigilantes make the cattle business difficult and then you close the avenues for their sale. For a farmer, his cattle are his insurance policy, which he redeems in a crunch situation," he added.

OneIndia News