Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday asked West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari to intervene over the state government’s recent notification on animal slaughter guidelines, claiming it had created “confusion and unrest” among the minority community in Murshidabad district.
In a letter to the chief minister, Chowdhury said the public announcement on May 13 to follow the “Animal Slaughter Guidelines” had caused concern in Murshidabad, where minorities form the majority of the population.
Suggesting what he called a practical solution, the Congress leader asked the state government to direct the Murshidabad district administration to identify and designate specific places where people could perform rituals related to their religious faith.
“Such identified and designated locations will only be used for customary practices related to the religious group. This approach will be an ideal solution to assuage the concern that notification may cause,” he wrote.
The May 13 notification reiterates that no slaughter of bulls, bullocks, cows, calves or male and female buffaloes can take place without an officially issued fitness certificate, which can be issued jointly only by the chairman of a municipality or the Sabhapati of a panchayat samiti along with a government veterinarian.
