GUNTUR: Guntur MP of the Telugu Desam Galla Jayadev forwarded two private bills in Parliament on Friday. The first private bill was about amendment of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, and the second private bill on right to skill education. Introducing the first private bill, Mr Jayadev said that cruelty to animals was of various forms.
It not only includes overt and intentional acts of violence towards animals, but also includes neglect of animals or failure to provide food to them. Animal cruelty can generally be described as any act of omission or commission that causes unnecessary or unreasonable harm to an animal, he said. Cruelty includes torturing or beating an animal or confining or transporting an animal in a way that is inappropriate for its welfare or killing an animal in an inhumane manner or failing to provide appropriate or adequate food or water to an animal, or failing to provide appropriate treatment for disease or injury, or failing to provide appropriate living conditions.
He lamented that we have seen how Shaktiman, a horse, succumbed to injuries recently in Uttarakhand. Mr Jayadev stated that it is not Shaktiman, but there are hundreds and thousands of animals which are subjected to cruelty day-in-and-day-out and persons committing such crimes either go scot-free or come out freely by paying a paltry sum as penalty prescribed under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Mr Jayadev sought increasing the penalty to deter cruelty against animals by amending the Act.
The Guntur MP proposed a private bill seeking amendment to Article-21A of the Constitution giving right to skill education to all. He said, “We are one of the few countries in the world where the working age population will be far in excess of those dependent on them and, as per the World Bank, this will continue for at least three decades till 2040.”
This has increasingly been recognised as a potential source of significant strength for the national economy, provided one is able to equip and continuously upgrade skills of the population in the working-age group.
