New Delhi, July 21: The government today said it has received requests to enact a law banning cow slaughter in the country but observed that states, and not the Centre, are competent to pass such a legislation.
“Being a state subject, state legislatures are competent to legislate in the subject,” K V Thomas, Minister of State for Agriculture, said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, responding to a demand of the BJP yesterday, had told the Lok Sabha that the Centre was “not in favour of banning cow slaughter by law.”
As many as 29 states and Union territories have either banned or curbed cow slaughter by legislation.
States like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa, among others, have passed legislation to ban or restrict cow slaughter.
–PTI