Assam govt bans serving, consumption of beef in public places

Informing that his government took note of recent charges of Assam Congress leaders who recently accused him of serving beef to woo Muslim voters to win byelections, the chief minister said, “We decided to ban the serving and consumption of beef completely in public places to end the controversy. We hope that Congress party will also support us in this endeavours as they also looked wooried over the consumption of beef.”

Pointing out that his government has already implemented a legislation banning the sale of beef in areas with a predominant population of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and other non-beef-eating communities, or within a radius of 5 km of any temple, ‘satra’ (Vaishnavite monastery) “or other religious institutions belonging to Hindu, Mr Sarma told reporters that a cabinet meeting on Wednesday decided to strengthen the earlier legislation by extending that restriction in entire Assam.

Mr Sarma who was in New Delhi said that he was also going to reshuffle his council of ministers on December 7. “I have already submitted my proposal to the central party leaders. In a day or two they will give their approval and accordingly, I will let you know the details of the reshuffle that will take place on December 7,” said the chief minister who also announced that he was in New Delhi to get the approval of some mega developmental projects for the state which included a ring road in Guwahati, elevated corridor in Kaziranga National Park, expansion of Bongaigaon refinery and Namrup fertilisers etc. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured to grant approval to our proposed developmental plans for which at least one lakh crore would be required,” he said adding that if not all major projects would get the approval of the central government by February next year.