The Haryana authorities’s plan to make a provision for a six-month jail time period for many who preserve cattle in city areas — together with villages and small cities that are a part of civic our bodies — with no license issued by the civic physique involved needed to be saved on maintain following sturdy objections by the Congress within the Assembly.
The aims of the proposed regulation, and the issues of the Opposition:
The reasoning behind the Bills
Tabling the Haryana Municipal (Amendment) Bill and Haryana Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill throughout the ongoing Budget Session of the Assembly, Haryana Urban Local Bodies Minister Kamal Gupta stated there was a necessity for uniformity in commerce license charges throughout all civic our bodies within the state , and that the laws would ease enterprise in city areas by eliminating the municipality of regulating powers.
The minister stated: “The business activities being carried out now have gone through a huge transformation as compared to trade/business activities which were being carried out during 1911. The municipality was the only regulatory authority at that time but now many regulatory authorities are in place, such as the Pollution Control Board, Industrial Safety and Health under the Factories Act, 1948 etc… As such, there is no justification (for) licenses by municipalities for such types of businesses which are regulated by other statutory authorities.”
The problem of cattle
As per the laws, “no person shall use or permit to be used any place or premises for keeping horses, cattle or other quadruped animals or birds for transportation, sale or hire or for sale of the produce” with no licence. Violating the regulation could be punishable with imprisonment for a time period as much as six months or a nice.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar stated there was mismanagement in city areas because of cattle and several other complaints relating to commerce license charges.
The Opposition’s objections
Congress MLA Varun Chaudhary stated a number of various things had been combined within the Bills with out an understanding of the bottom realities. “Whenever any municipal body is carved out, nearby villages are also added to the civic body keeping in view the requirements of a specific number of persons for such a body. In rural areas, most people keep cattle including cows for their milk requirements. Several poor families are dependent on these cattle for their livelihood too. Now, suddenly a provision of a six-month jail term has been proposed just for keeping a cow at home… If you say that cattle are causing pollution and clogging drains in semi-urban areas, then how will a license make a difference? Cattle are already banned in sectors of urban areas and we don’t have objections to the same, but such a ban in the entire area which comes under the jurisdiction of civic bodies is not justified.”
Congress MLA Jagbir Malik stated such a regulation would possibly result in inspector raj in cities with police in search of bribes to let the poor preserve cattle of their properties.
Select Committee
Even Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta in addition to leaders of BJP ally JJP expressed reservations over the Bills. JJP MLA Jogi Ram Sihag stated: “Village Sisay of Hisar district has been converted into a civic body but everybody keeps cattle in their homes there. By this mathematics, the entire village has to seek permission to keep their cattle.” Sihag stated the situation of in search of permission could possibly be imposed for simply dairies.
The Select Committee to which the Bills have been referred now will comprise legislators of the ruling BJP-JJP alliance in addition to the Opposition. The CM stated the difficulty of commerce license charges could also be addressed by an administrative order for the time-being.
Cattle numbers
Livestock census by the Haryana Animal Husbandry and Dairy Department present a gradual rise in cattle numbers within the state, from 15.40 lakh in 2003 and 18.08 lakh in 2012 to 19.32 lakh in 2019.
,
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
