Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Union Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, on Thursday demanded that cow slaughter be treated as an offence on par with killing a human being and offenders be sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of minimum 15 years.
Expressing deep concern over the death of 28 cattle when the truck in which they were being transported overturned following an accident in Balasore district, Mr. Sarangi said, “When I was in Kolkata this morning, I heard the news. I have spoken to top officers in Odisha. I can without any doubts say the cattle were being taken to be slaughtered in abattoirs of Kolkata and Bangladesh.”
Mr. Sarangi was speaking to Odia media persons at his official residence in New Delhi on Thursday.
Letter to Odisha CM
The Union Minister also wrote a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urging him to amend the Orissa Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act 1960. “As per the Act, there is provision of two years of jail term for those who kill cow and abet killing them. Nobody knows how many have been punished under this provision.”
He demanded that the provision of 15 years RI be made for cow slaughter as done by Karnataka.
