Days after the new BJP government in West Bengal issued directives to all district administrations to ensure strict adherence to the West Bengal Animal Slaughter Act and issued guidelines, senior Congress leader and former MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has sought Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s intervention to mitigate the “unease and unrest created by the guidelines among the minority community”.
In a letter to the chief minister, the former MP wrote that in his home district of Murshidabad, where Muslims are in the majority, the notice regarding adherence to the guidelines has caused consternation in the community.
Suggesting that places for animal slaughter should be identified and demarcated, the Congress leader wrote, “With a view to enabling people of different communities to practise their socio-religious customs without any misgivings or problems, I would suggest that in places like Murshidabad in particular, the district administration may undertake measures to identify and demarcate specific locations where people could practise the customs associated with the religious faith they profess.”
“Such locations that are identified and demarcated would be used solely for customary practises associated with the religious grouping. This approach will be an ideal solution for putting to rest the unease the notice may be causing, particularly among the minority community, who constitute a major chunk of the population in Murshidabad, and follow certain practices that are customary,” added the former MP from Bahrampur in Murshidabad.
On May 13, the new government issued a public notice stating that no one will be allowed to carry out animal slaughter without a certificate of the animal being fit for slaughter. “No person shall slaughter any animal, thereby meaning (bulls, bullocks, cows, calves, male and female buffaloes, buffalo calves, and castrated buffaloes) unless he has obtained in respect thereof a certificate that the animal is fit for slaughter,” stated the notice.
However, animals can only be slaughtered in a municipal slaughterhouse or any other slaughterhouse earmarked by the administration, it added.
The notice, which was issued ahead of the Bakrid festival of Muslims in which animal sacrifices are made, also strictly prohibited animal slaughter in public places. Only animals above 14 years of age or those found permanently incapacitated due to injury, deformity, age or incurable disease would qualify for slaughter, according to the notice.
“Whoever contravenes any of the above provisions of law, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a period upto six months or with fine upto Rs. 1,000/- or with both. All offences under the West Bengal Animal Slaughter Act 1950 shall be cognizable offences,” the notice stated.