The Kerala Assembly would hold a special session here on Thursday to discuss the implications of the notification issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change banning sale of cattle meant for slaughter at animal markets.
The House is likely to adopt a resolution condemning the Central action and call upon the Union government to withdraw the notification which Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had, in a letter to his counterparts across the country, described ‘anti-federal, anti-democratic and anti-secular’. He had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing the State’s strong opposition to the notification.
Mr. Vijayan had, in his letters to the Chief Ministers, expressed the fear that the notification ‘may mark the beginning of similar steps aimed at destroying the federal democratic fabric and secular culture of our country’ as it was ‘nothing but a covert attempt to usurp the powers of State legislatures’. He had termed ‘strange’ the Centre’s decision to issue the rules under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, as they had ‘nothing to do with the objectives of the Act’ and the subjects covered by the Rules belonged to Entries 15 and 28 of the State List.
The government’s decision to hold a special session of the Assembly to discuss the issue had come in the wake of such a demand from various quarters, most prominently from Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala. A special meeting of the Cabinet held to discuss the subject had chosen to hold the special session as part of a three-pronged strategy to oppose the notification, including rallying of like-minded Chief Ministers and seeking legal recourse to get the notification nullified.
