Bengaluru: Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda believes the Centre must build shelters for aging cattle before banning their slaughter.
Speaking to reporters here on Monday, the minister said banning cow slaughter without providing an alternative would burden the farmers as they would be forced to hold on to animals, which were old and not of any financial use to them. “These cows would have stopped yeilding milk or being of any other use to them. But they will still have to look after them. Only if the Centre is ready to take care of the animals should it ban their slaughter,” the agriculture minister said, clarifying that he was not making this comment on any religious ground, but only for the farmers' welfare.
Accusing the Centre of not coming to the rescue of the farmers after the failure of their kharif crop, he said although the state government had in January sought a '3,310 crore compensation for them and a central team had visited the state in February, no funds were released. “A high level meeting of the Union Home, Finance and Agriculture Ministers has not yet taken place to decide on the compensation,” he regretted, adding that he and the Revenue Minister would go to Delhi again and plead on behalf of the state’s farmers for early release of compensation.
