Don’t intend to alter people’s food habits: Centre

NEW DELHI: The government does not want to “alter” the food habits of people and put businesses in this sector to trouble, Union minister Harsh Vardhan said.
His remarks come amid protests over the notification issued by his ministry on the sale of cattle for slaughter at open markets across the country.
“We drafted the rules after the Supreme Court directive. Following this, the notification was put in the public domain for a period of one month. Some suggestions came and were incorporated into the rules. Our intention behind issuing the rules is not to alter the food habits of people in anyway. We also do not have any intention of putting businesses of any kind to difficulty,” the environment minister said.
The row over beef eating and cattle trade has led to protests in several states, including Meghalaya where even BJP members resigned over the issue.
Vardhan said suggestions “are coming in and if anybody has any reservations, they can send it to the ministry and these suggestions will be looked at objectively.
“Now the matter is again in the Supreme Court,” he said.
The Madras High Court had on May 30 stayed for four weeks the enforcement of the contentious notification. The order had come on a petition challenging the bar as inimical to personal liberty.
It may be mentioned that following resignation of party members, the Meghalaya BJP had clarified that the opposition, especially Congress was trying to politicize the issue by spreading rumours.
Even Union Minister Kiren Rijiju had come out with a statement that beef ban was a non-issue in the North East. (PTI)