The rising cost of beef in Meghalaya is more down to the smuggling of cattle into Bangladesh rather than any undue restrictions placed on the movement of cattle by neighbouring Assam, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Minister Sanbor Shullai said today.
Shullai held a meeting with officials today to address the problems faced by cattle traders. This comes in the wake of a newspaper report claiming that the price of beef was skyrocketing because of Assam’s restrictions on the transport of cattle through that state.
After Assam tightened its cattle slaughter, transport and sale rules in 2021, Meghalaya launched “immediate steps” Shullai said to mitigate this and ensure hassle-free transport of cattle from other states.
A series of meetings were held with officials of Assam to ensure that cattle traders do not face problems while moving cattle through Assam into Meghalaya.
The Meghalaya government began issuing transit permits for cattle traders. There were 53 applicants for such permits, of which 370 have been issued to local traders, dairy cooperatives and others, the minister informed.
“All the allegations of not getting transit permits are baseless. The department has been granting TPs expeditiously to genuine traders. The department has not received any complaints from traders regarding any hurdle faced in Assam while transporting cattle,” Shullai stated, while urging any who do face obstacles to inform his department for legal remedy.
Principal Secretary GHP Raju mentioned that smugglers are emboldened by the high price that cattle fetch in Bangladesh to try and smuggle the animals over the international border.
“We don’t know with whose help are they doing this. The traders have told us that the TPs are just a piece of paper of no use since the smugglers are smuggling cattle from outside and taking it to Bangladesh,” Raju said.
To try and crack down on this illegal trade, the department has or will soon set up checkposts at entry points to detect unauthorised transportation of cattle. These are at Umling, Jirang, Umkiang, Bajengdoba, Tikrikilla and Aradong.
Raju also urged traders to inform the department if any driver faces extortion at these checkposts.
“The people should be wise and ensure that these MDCs who betrayed the jaitbynriew should lose the next election miserably. They have tried to turn the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and the district council into a joke,” he said.
Voting for “incompetent” people in the Assembly is bad enough, as it will affect governance and development, but making the same mistake in the KHADC will lead to the loss of Khasi land and destruction of customary practices, he warned ominously.
The government and the NPP MDCs are making a mockery of Meghalaya’s statehood, Lyngdoh added, as they are acting as puppets of Assam, the state that Meghalaya protested vigorously to split from 50 years ago.
He said that the agreement between the states should not only be revisited, as many are demanding, but abolished altogether because it was signed without the consent of the people.
