New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday rejected criticism that the Centre was infringing upon states’ rights on the cattle issue, saying the order has nothing do with slaughter of cattle which is governed by respective state laws.
“It (Central notification) has nothing to do with legislation or no legislation…. Is this farmers’ market meant for those involved in slaughter trade or not — this is the only effect of the notification. And whether you can slaughter or not, that is the state legislation which applies,” Jaitley told a media conference here.
He was replying to a question on three Chief Ministers, including from Kerala and West Bengal, writing to the Centre opposing the order issued by the Union Environment Ministry regulating cattle trade in which animals cannot be sold for slaughter.
Jaitley said there is a provision in the Constitution, Article 48 on Directive Principles, which says that certain category of animals have to be protected.
“You have, during the 1950s, during Nehru’s era, state after state framing a legislation. Now there are two categories of states – ones which have prohibited slaughter, others which have not. Those laws are continuing.
“This clarification which has come has nothing to do with those state legislations,” he added.
Ever since the Environment Ministry came out with the notification on May 23, banning the sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter at animal markets across India, states ruled by opposition parties and political opponents of the BJP have come out strongly against it, terming it an attempt to impose food habits on people and strike at the roots of federalism by taking away states’ powers.
Jaitley said the BJP government had taken enough steps to ease tension with Pakistan but Islamabad responded with cross-border terrorism to “successfuly” prevent the atmosphere needed for peace talks.
The government took “significant steps to ease the situation”, which included inviting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s oath ceremony and Modi’s December 2015 Lahore stopover for a social function at the Sharifs.
“Each one of these was responded by Pakistan with, let’s say, a Pathankot or an Uri or even the mutilation of two of our soldiers. Environment which must exist for talks was successfully prevented by Pakistan,” Jaitely told the media, referring to terror attacks in India.
The Minister said the Indian armed forces, which include the Army and the BSF, have been dominating the LoC — the de facto border with Pakistan — for the “past few weeks” to curb the cross-border militant incursion.
Jaitley refused to get into details about how the government planned to control escalating militancy in Kashmir.
“I don’t want to get into the strategic details but in the past few weeks our armed forces are dominating the LoC. Our security forces have been maintaining control over the situation.”
Asked about the situation in the Kashmir Valley, the Minister said it was not as bad as it was made out to be.
“Go and see for yourself. Some south Kashmir districts were a challenge. The other parts of the valley, including Srinagar, are normal.”
With regards Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY). Jaitley said that the deposits amounting under the scheme was only around Rs 5,000 crore. The scheme was launched post-demonetisation.
He said attributed multi factor to the tepid response to the said scheme for declaring unaccounted income.
“The Rs 5,000 crore declared under PMGKY is mainly on account of two factors,” Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia who was present at the media briefing here.
“Even before the scheme was announced, people had put their money in various accounts,” he said referring to the rush witnessed to deposit high-value currency notes after these were junked under the November 8 demonetisation measure.