Owaisi welcomes SC order on cattle trade rules

Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi today welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to extend the Madras High Court’s stay on the Centre’s notification banning the sale and purchase of cattle at animal markets for slaughter to the entire country.

“Fantastic. The government is on a weak wicket. It has always been on a weak wicket. It had no right to notify those rules,” the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief told reporters here.

The Centre had, on May 23, issued a notification banning the sale and purchase of cattle at animal markets for the purpose of slaughter.

The Supreme Court today said the interim direction of the Madras High Court, staying the notification, would remain in force and apply to the entire country.

Replying to a query over a demand in some quarters for India to introduce a two-child policy, the Hyderabad MP claimed that even China was mulling to do away with it.

He said the government must make efforts to “use the country’s demographic dividends to its advantage” as it was not going to last forever.

“These people (who are in favour of a strict two-child norm) should visit China. Now, China wants to do away with that condition,” said Owaisi.

“India is in a very important and advantageous position, which the government must utilise to make the country stronger,” he added.

—-PTI