Ban on livestock markets before Eid is a harsh move on farmers: Prakash Ambedkar
After Maharashtra Goseva Ayog's circular on the ban on holding livestock market from June 3 to June 8, 2025, ahead of Bakri-Eid on June 7, members of cattle market committee have raised concerns over the financial crisis they will incur during the period. Most cattle rearers are daily wager farmers who look forward to making good income around the time.
The Maharashtra Goseva Ayog, a Government of Maharashtra's commission for the welfare of indigenous cows, issued a circular on May 27, 2025, to all Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs) in the State that said that in a meeting held on May 14, 2025, it has been decided that while celebrating Bakri Eid festival 2025 in the State, Maharashtra Animal Protection Act 1976 and Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act 1995 (Amendment 4 March 2015) should be implemented. The act prohibits the slaughter of bulls and bullocks in addition to cows, and includes provisions regarding transport, sale, and possession of these animals, regardless of their age or health.
The circular read, 'For this festival (Bakri Eid), a large number of animals will be slaughtered/sacrificed. Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act 1995 (Amendment 4 March 2015) has implemented a complete ban on cow slaughter in the State. Section 5A of this Act prohibits the slaughter of cattle, the sale of cattle for slaughter, the sale of cattle for slaughter, the purchase and sale of cattle for slaughter, the sale of cattle for slaughter, the sale of cattle for slaughter, and the sale of cattle slaughtered outside the State.'
The circular informed the APMCs that the commission will ensure that no cattle markets will be held in the villages of any district from June 3, 2025, to June 8, 2025, so that there will be no violation of the Act due to the slaughter of cattle.
Veteran politician and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi founder Prakash Ambedkar told The Hindu that the members of the cattle market committee have reached out to them seeking their guidance to oppose the circular. 'We strongly oppose this circular; we are in the process of challenging it. The State has already banned cow slaughter but banning the entire market on days when the sale is expected is a harsh step against the daily wage farmers and a chain of people who depend on it. This is the first time in Maharashtra we have seen such a circular. Who will compensate for the loss so many are going to face due to this circular?'
Mr. Ambedkar further questioned the committee's authority over issuing the circular. 'Maharashtra Goseva Aayog does not have the powers to issue such a circulars or orders to the market committees, it should come from the Department of Animal Husbandry.'
Lasalgaon APMC's secretary, Narendra Wadhavne said that such an order has never come in the past, but they will have to abide by the circular and follow the instructions. 'There is no ban on sheep or goats but since the market is asked to be shut during those days, many are planning to purchase in advance. This will also interrupt the Bakri Eid rituals of people, which involves animal sacrifice, primarily goat or sheep.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
Delhi High Court Allows Family Of Minor Sex Abuse Survivor To Close Case
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court quashed a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act case after the survivor and her family requested the court to close the case as they were seeking a marriage prospect for the girl and now wish to move on. While quashing the case, the court has directed the accused to do community service for a month at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, while also asking him to pay Rs 50,000 towards "Army Welfare Fund Battle Casualties". The court noted that ordinarily, allegations of this nature, particularly those involving the sexual harassment of a minor, would not merit quashing. The accused, along with another minor boy (recognised as child in conflict with the law), had blackmailed the minor girl with her private pictures, which she had shared with the accused during their relationship in school. The accused, who was her senior in school, had allegedly extorted money from the girl. It was alleged that after the accused shared her pictures with another schoolmate of hers, he (child in conflict with law) hacked her Instagram and uploaded her private pictures on her account. The court noted that the allegations against the accused are serious, involving the harassment of a minor girl through exploitation. "The facts narrated disclose a pattern emblematic of the darker undercurrents of the social media age, where technology is misused to exert control, induce fear, and compromise dignity. Considering this, at the outset, the Court was not inclined to quash the FIR in a perfunctory manner. However, after a detailed and careful interaction with the complainant and her mother, it emerged that they have consciously chosen to move on from the incident," the order read. The high court noted that the survivor's parents said that the complainant is currently exploring matrimonial prospects, and that the pendency of a criminal case may pose as a serious impediment to her future opportunities and personal relationships. "Her mother specifically submitted that ongoing criminal proceedings of this nature are likely to create social stigma and could undermine the family's efforts to secure a suitable match for the complainant," the order read. A bench of Justice Sanjeev Narula quashed the case, stating that, "It is true that while offences under Sections 354, 354C, 384 of the IPC and Section 12 of the POCSO Act are classified as non-compoundable, those under Sections 506 and 509 IPC are compoundable with the permission of the Court, being offences affecting an identifiable individual." "However, the law is equally cognizant of the victim's right to privacy, dignity, and closure. In appropriate cases, the Court, while exercising its inherent powers under Section 528 of the BNSS (earlier Section 482 CrPC), may quash proceedings involving non-compoundable offences where the parties have voluntarily and meaningfully settled the dispute, and where the continuation of the prosecution would serve no useful purpose and would instead prolong trauma," the order read. The FIR was registered for the offences under Sections 354, 354C, 506, 509, 384 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and Section 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. A settlement deed was entered into between the parties, as per which the complainant voluntarily resolved all her disputes with the accused and agreed to give no-objection to the quashing of the FIR. It was recorded that she had neither received any monetary compensation from the accused, nor intended to claim any.
NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
Supreme Court's 7 Directions For Domestic Violence Act Implementation
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has not only asked authorities to appoint protection officers to assist victims of domestic violence across the country within six weeks, but also issued several detailed directions to Centre, States and Union Territories to ensure provisions of the Domestic Violence Act are implemented. In a significant order, the Supreme Court said that such directions have been issued as initial steps to ensure the Act's implementation in all respects. The directions came after the top court noted that despite the Act being in force for over two decades, its implementation remains uneven across India. On May 20, the bench headed by Justices BV Nagarathana and Satish Chandra Sharma had passed the order emphasising the need to appoint protection officers. A detailed order copy released today on Supreme Court website includes several key directions to states and Centre. The seven key directions from Supreme Court are: 1. Identify And Appoint Protection Officers "We direct the States and Union Territories to identify officers in the Department of Women and Child development working at the District and Taluka levels as Protection Officers and designate them as such. It is needless to observe that on such designation, the Protection Officers shall discharge their duties in terms of Section 9 of the Act." 2. Appointment Of Protection Officers Within Six Weeks "We direct the Chief Secretaries of States/Union Territories as well as the Secretaries, Department of Women and Child of the respective States and Union Territories to coordinate in this regard and ensure that the officers are designated as Protection Officers under the provisions of the Act. Such exercise shall be carried out within a period of six weeks from today wherever designation of the officers as protection officer has not taken place." 3. Awareness About Provisions For Victims Of Domestic Violence The top court directed the Centre and States to especially implement provisions of Section 11 of the Domestic Violence Act. Along with ensuring publicity at regular intervals about the provisions of the DV Act, Section 11 mandates that the central and state government officers, including the police officers and the members of the judicial services, are given periodic sensitisation and awareness training on the issues addressed by this Act. The said section also mandates effective co-ordination between the services provided by concerned Ministries and Departments dealing with law and home affairs, including law and order, health and human resources, to address issues of domestic violence and a periodical review of the same is carried out. "The respondent-States and Union Territories shall take steps to discharge their duties under Section 11 of the Act by giving wide publicity through public media about the provisions of the Act for having an effective coordination between the services provided by various Ministries and Departments for the implementation of the Act and to ensure that the protocols of the various ministries concerned with the delivery of services to women under the Act are took in place. While we may issue further directions in this regard, we expect that having regard to the explicit provisions of Section 11, the State Government shall take all measures in delineated under the said provisions." Supreme Court order read. 4. Ensure Implementation Of Section 11 Of Domestic Violence Act The Supreme Court noted that Section 11 also imposes duty on the Central Government "and, therefore, we direct that adequate and sufficient steps may be taken by the Union of India for implementation of Section 11 of the Act which is extracted above". Section 11 mandates that protocols for various Ministries concerned with the delivery of services to women under this Act, including for the courts, are prepared and put in place. 5. Free Legal Aid To Victims of Domestic Violence "We have noted that Section 9(d) of the Act read with Section 12 of the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987 entitles a woman and particularly a distressed women who are aggrieved to legal aid. In view of this mandate, we direct the Member Secretary of NALSA to communicate to the Member Secretaries of the States/Union Territories, Legal Services Authorities, to in turn communicate to the Member Secretaries at the District level as well as the Taluka level to give wide publicity to the fact that an aggrieved women under the provisions of the Act is entitled to free legal aid and advise." 6. Role Of Member Secretaries At State, District Levels The Supreme Court said that the Member Secretaries at the States, Districts and Talukas level may also give adequate publicity to this aspect in the context of the provisions of the Domestic Violence Act, 2005. "It goes without saying that should any distressed women approach the Member Secretary or any other officer of the Legal Services Authority for seeking legal aid and advice, the same would be provided expeditiously since the Act envisages that every woman is entitled to free legal aid," the order read. 7. Identify, Notify And Make Shelter Homes More Accessible To Victims Within 10 Weeks The top court said that steps shall also be taken by the concerned departments to empanel the service providers as per Section 10 of the Act. Service providers, like NGOs or Societies recognised under Section 10, record the domestic incident report in the prescribed form if the aggrieved person so desires and forward a copy thereof to the Magistrate and the Protection Officer having jurisdiction in the area where the domestic violence took place. They can also get the aggrieved person medically examined and forward a copy of the medical report to the Protection Officer and the police station within the local limits of which the domestic violence took place. Shelter homes or Nari Niketan, one stop centres or any other homes for women must be accessible to the victims of domestic violence and therefore, steps have to be taken to ensure that such homes are made available to the distressed women. "The respondent-State and Union Territories are directed to identify and notify shelter homes for this purpose at the District and Taluka levels within a period of ten weeks from today." The case came up in court after court was apprised that several states were assigning the responsibilities under the DV Act to officials already handling the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), which includes child welfare and protection duties. Senior advocate Shobha Gupta, representing the NGO We the Women, contended in court that these officers are overburdened and unable to manage the workload, leaving vulnerable women and children unsupported. Gupta argued that Designating ICDS or Anganwadi workers as Protection Officers will not be enough.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Explained: Centre's new regulations for jobs and domicile in Ladakh, where they fall short
The Centre has notified a series of regulations for Ladakh's land, jobs, and cultural preservation, aimed at addressing concerns raised by the civil society in Ladakh over the past five years. The new legal framework introduces a domicile-based job reservation system, recognition of local languages, and procedural clarity in civil service recruitment. What are the new regulations? On June 2 and 3, the government notified five regulations: 1. Ladakh Civil Services Decentralization and Recruitment (Amendment) Regulation, 2025 This regulation introduces a domicile requirement for recruitment in government posts under the Union Territory of Ladakh, for the first time. The domicile is defined as a person who has resided in Ladakh for 15 years; or a person who has studied for 7 years and appeared in either Class 10 or 12 examination in Ladakh; Children of Central Government employees who have served in Ladakh for at least 10 years; and children and spouses of domiciles. 2. Ladakh Civil Services Domicile Certificate Rules, 2025 These rules lay out the procedure and documentation required to obtain a domicile certificate. The tehsildar is designated as the issuing authority, while the Deputy Commissioner is the appellate authority. Applications can be submitted both physically and electronically. 3. Union Territory of Ladakh Reservation (Amendment) Regulation, 2025 This regulation caps the total reservation for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), and other socially and educationally backward groups at 85%, excluding the 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS). Importantly, these reservations have also been extended to professional institutions, such as engineering and medical colleges in Ladakh. The quota for SC, ST and OBC for admissions into these colleges was earlier capped at 50% and has now been expanded to 85%. 4. Ladakh Official Languages Regulation, 2025 This law recognises English, Hindi, Urdu, Bhoti, and Purgi as the official languages of Ladakh. It also mandates institutional support for the promotion of Shina, Brokskat, Balti, and Ladakhi, for preserving Ladakh's linguistic and cultural diversity. 5. Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (Amendment) Regulation, 2025 This amends the LAHDC Act of 1997 to reserve one-third of the seats for women in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils of Leh and Kargil, through rotation. Why are these regulations significant? This is the first comprehensive attempt by the Centre to tailor governance and administrative frameworks specifically for Ladakh, following its bifurcation from Jammu & Kashmir in 2019. Since the government is reluctant to grant Sixth Schedule status to Ladakh, which would result in greater autonomy under the Constitution, the regulations aim to address Ladakhi concerns through executive orders rather than constitutional guarantees. By defining the domicile criteria and creating a legal filter for recruitment, the government has taken a significant step towards reserving jobs for the local population, a demand that has been at the heart of the protest movement. Additionally, the language regulation offers long-awaited recognition to Bhoti and Purgi, which are mother tongues for large sections of the population. The promotion of Ladakhi, Balti, and other minority dialects reflects an understanding of the importance of cultural identity in political demands. Since the abrogation of Article 370 and the enactment of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the political and legal status of Ladakh has been a deeply contentious subject. With the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir being bifurcated into two UTs — Jammu & Kashmir with a legislature, and Ladakh without one — the people of Ladakh found themselves under direct central administration. What followed was not a celebration, but concern. Despite assurances from the Centre, residents feared that without constitutional protections, Ladakh's unique tribal identity, fragile ecology, and limited resources would come under pressure from external economic and demographic forces. This led to a growing demand for the inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule, which provides tribal-majority areas in certain northeastern states with legislative and financial autonomy through autonomous district councils. The demand is grounded in the fact that more than 90% of Ladakh's population belongs to Scheduled Tribes. The demand has been consistently voiced by the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and the Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), which jointly represent the Buddhist and Muslim communities in the region. In 2024 and 2025, the movement gained national visibility thanks to a high-profile hunger strike led by Sonam Wangchuk, an engineer, innovator and climate activist. How are the new regulations different from existing provisions? Before these regulations, Ladakh was governed largely by adapted versions of laws in J&K, including the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004 and the Civil Services Decentralization and Recruitment Act, 2010. These did not include any concept of domicile specific to Ladakh, protection for jobs for locals, clear reservation caps or exclusions for EWS, and recognition of Ladakhi languages in official use. In that sense, the 2025 regulations represent a departure from borrowed laws and a move towards region-specific governance. How do they compare with Jammu & Kashmir's protections? After bifurcation, the UT of Jammu & Kashmir received: In contrast, Ladakh: So, while these regulations bring Ladakh somewhat closer to the protections given to Jammu & Kashmir post-2019, the region still lags behind in constitutional safeguards. What are the limitations of these regulations? Despite being an important step, the regulations fall short of addressing certain core demands of the Sixth Schedule movement: 1. Lack of constitutional protection: All new rules and regulations have been made under Article 240 of the Constitution, which allows the President to make regulations for UTs without the legislature. These are executive decisions that can be amended or withdrawn by the Centre at any time, unlike the Sixth Schedule, which is part of the Constitution and offers guaranteed protections. 2. No land safeguards: The most critical omission is the absence of any restriction on land ownership by non-domiciles. This is a key issue in Ladakh, given concerns over large-scale tourism, infrastructure projects, and climate vulnerability. 3. No local legislature or council with law-making powers: The Sixth Schedule allows for the creation of Autonomous District Councils with powers over land, forests, customs, education, and more. The LAHDCs, even with one-third seats now reserved for women, remain administrative bodies without legislative power. 4. Symbolic cultural protection: While local languages have been recognised, there is no roadmap for their official use in education, governance, or the judiciary. KDA leader Sajjad Kargili expressed partial satisfaction with the new regulations. 'Something is better than nothing. There was a huge pressure from the public due to rising unemployment. We hope that the government will also now quickly notify vacancies and fill up posts so that the frustration of youth is addressed,' Kargili told The Indian Express. He, however, said the Ladakhi civil society will continue to push for inclusion in the Sixth Schedule. 'Our demand is that the domicile condition should be 30 years and not 15 years. Also, the new provisions do not address our concerns over land and environment. There is no protection for land in the new regulations. Also, our key demand has been representative politics through the creation of an Assembly. So, these regulations are welcome, but they are only baby steps,' he said. Sources said the Ladakh delegations will meet representatives of the Ministry of Home Affairs next month, and all pending issues will be discussed. 'In our past meetings with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, we have been assured that all issues will be discussed,' Kargili said. Rishika Singh is a Senior sub-editor at the Explained Desk of The Indian Express. She enjoys writing on issues related to international relations, and in particular, likes to follow analyses of news from China. Additionally, she writes on developments related to politics and culture in India. ... Read More
