CM assured Gujarat Cattle Control Bill will be ‘cancelled’: BJP maldhari cell president

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters Shree Kamalam, Desai said, “The Maldhari community, which has been with the BJP for years, was upset with the Gujarat Cattle Control (Keeping and Moving) in Urban Areas Bill, 2022 being passed in the Gujarat Assembly.”

He said that all senior and religious leaders representing the maldhari community met CM Patel “who assured everyone that the Bill would be cancelled in the upcoming assembly session”. A two-day monsoon session of the assembly will be held on September 21-22.

The CM has respected the request of all senior leaders, he said, adding Patel also assured that the government would do whatever else for the community.

Asked about the stray cattle menace on the roads that was taking lives, Desai said the matter was being “discussed” between BJP state chief CR Paatil and CM Patel, and had assured building of “maldhari colonies using high technology” and ensuring their livelihoods were protected.

“I cannot speak on the matters to come up in the assembly session. There were some talks on ways to resolve the issue,” state government spokesperson Jitu Vaghani told The Indian Express.

The Gujarat Assembly had passed the Gujarat Cattle Control (Keeping and Moving) in Urban Areas Bill, 2022 with a majority on March 31—the last day of the budget session following a six-hour marathon discussion.

The proposed law, which will licence, regulate and prohibit cattle movements and will be applicable to the eight municipal corporations of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Jamnagar and Gandhinagar, and 162 municipality jurisdictions, is still awaiting the Governor’s consent.

The government had reduced the proposed fine following representations from its own as well as opposition MLAs.