Bihar BJP Protests Budget Allocations for Minorities

March 29, 2017

Belying the Slogan ‘Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas’, the Bihar unit of the BJP has opposed budgetary allocations for minorities and also announced its intention to invite the newly elected and controversial UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath for a felicitation programme in Bihar. Media reports have suggested that Yogi Adityanath’s Hindu Yuva Vahini has announced launching of its units in the Muslim dominated Seemanchal areas of Bihar.

Image: India Today

The Opposition in Bihar, the BJP, on Wednesday staged protest within the Bihar Legislative Assembly against Nitish Kumar government’s decision to enhance the budgetary allocation for minorities welfare for 2017-18 by a whopping 254 per cent as compared to the last year.

Accusing the Grand Alliance government of indulging in "minority appeasement", BJP and NDA members trooped into the well of the house and raised anti-government slogans. The issue was raised by leader of Opposition Prem Kumar during zero hour.

Later, while talking to sections of the media, Prem Kumar also demanded closure of thousands of illegal abattoirs in Bihar too as done in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. The opposition leader said that in the budgetary allocation for the next fiscal, a 254 per cent hike has been given to minority welfare as compared to 2016-17. He claimed that the budgetary allocations for SC/ST welfare has been slashed by 20 per cent and for OBC and Extremely Backward castes by 22 per cent, he said. Echoing the divisive issues raised by the Modi-Shah combine during the run up to the UP polls late last month, Kumar also said that while works related to the fencing of graveyards (kabristan) were completed on time in Bihar during the last year, works related to the smashan (crematorium) dragged on.[The fencing of 5307 of the total 8064 graveyards in the state were completed in 2016-2017, while crematoria were not given any attention, he claimed]. Taking a cue from the arbitrary crackdown on illegal abattoirs in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, the Bihar BJP also demanded the closure of thousands of unlicensed abattoirs in the state.

Prem Kumar who was accompanied by Lallan Paswan of RLSP (Rashtriya Lok Samata Party), an ally of BJP in NDA, and BJP leader Neeraj Singh Bablu, also demanded the stopping of illegal trade of cattle and buffaloes from Bihar to Bangladesh and other parts of the country.

Affirming India’s Diversity, Mamata Govt rolls out Meat Delivery Vans

March 29, 2017

The initiative has been started by WBLDCL’s popular brand ‘Haringhata Meat’, which also deals in non-conventional meat such as that of quail, duck, turkey and emu.

Image: Indian Express

While Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state is under the grip of police terror unleashed in the name of ‘curbing illegal slaughterhouses’, and hundreds of thousands of livelihoods have been snatched away, the West Bengal government is set to get non-vegetarian delicacies to Kolkata’s doorsteps through ‘Meat on Wheelz’. UP’s reign of terror has been imitated by BJP-ruled Jharkand that is ironically also an Adivasi state (state of the indigenous peoples).

The initiative has been started by West Bengal Livestock Development Corporation Limited (WBLDCL)’s popular brand ‘Haringhata Meat’, which also deals in non-conventional meat such as that of quail, duck, turkey and emu. Officials said that apart from taking cooked non-veg delicacies to Kolkata and its suburbs, ‘Meat on Wheelz’ would also sell frozen packaged items of Haringhata, reports The Indian Express.

The scheme was launched by Animal Resources Development Department Minister Swapan Debnath on Monday at the department’s headquarters at Salt Lake. There would be three vans initially, spread out across Kolkata. “Depending on the success of the pilot project, a few more vehicles would be added, including in other district headquarters of the state,” an official said.

On Tuesday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee commented about the “recent happenings” in Uttar Pradesh, where meat sellers went on strike in protest against the crackdown on slaughterhouses. “People are afraid & many are scared about differences over caste, creed & religion,” she said in a statement. Among the dishes planned on Meat on Wheelz are quail briyani, ‘gandharaj turkey’ and duck roast.

An official said that Haringhata Meat’s sales had trebled over the past few years, with that of quail, duck and turkey meat doubling in the last one year. “In 2014-15, we had sales of Rs 4.35 lakh in frozen and processed meat. By 2015-16 September, it had jumped to Rs 9.58 lakh. If you take into account sales during the Ahare Bangla food festival, we crossed the Rs 10 lakh mark,” said the official. Ahare Bangla is an annual food festival organised by the West Bengal government, which saw participation from other countries as well last year.

Officials said Haringhata had also tied up with three food courts at shopping malls in Kolkata, one in Siliguri and with different hotel and retail chains.WBLDCL deals primarily with the production, processing and marketing of hygienic meat products of different types, like chicken, pork, chevon (adult goat meat), mutton, duck, quail, emu, vanaraja chicken (chicken breed bred for rural areas) and turkey. The organisation also sells non-meat products like table eggs, duck eggs, quail eggs, pure mustard oil, ghee and honey.

The corporation has two modern hygienic meat processing units in Haringhata of Nadia district — one for pork products and the other for chicken, duck, goat and lamb.

MP: Police Arrest & Jail Muslim Youth who Posted Photo of Sadhu Purchasing Meat

March 29, 2017

The Kotwali Police in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh booked the private practitioner in his late twenties under Section 505 (2) of the IPC and produced him before a local court that sent him to judicial custody. In a clear attack on freedom of expression, this Muslim youth from Jhabua who shared an image of a Sadhu buying meat was arrested and sent to jail on Tuesday.

Section 502 of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) penalises “ Sale of printed or engraved substance containing defamatory matter.—Whoever sells or offers for sale any printed or engraved substance containing defamatory matter, knowing that it contains such matter, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.”

The selective use of hate speech, hate writing and ‘defamation’ under the BJP ruled states is evident given the fact that inciteful speeches by elected officials against he minorities have been completely ignored. However, Atik Afzal Khan, a BMHS practitioner, had shared the image on his Facebook page on Monday with the caption: “Rahim Ki dukan se Ram hari sabjiya kharidate hue, ek durlabh tasvir (Ram buys green vegetable from Rahim’s shop, a rare photograph).

The Kotwali Police booked the private practitioner in his late twenties under Section 505 (2) of the IPC and produced him before a local court that sent him to judicial custody. Police constable Ramkumar Yadav said one Anil Hemraj Prajapati, 21, had lodged a complaint against Khan, a resident of Kailash Marg in Jhabua town.

·         A Muslim youth from Jhabua who shared an image of a sadhu buying meat was arrested and sent to jail on Tuesday, March 29.
·         Atik Afzal Khan, a BMHS practitioner, had shared the image on his Facebook page on Monday with the caption: Rahim Ki dukan se Ram hari sabjiya kharidate hue, ek durlabh tasvir (Ram buys green vegetable from Rahims shop, a rare photograph).
·         The Kotwali Police booked the private practitioner in his late twenties under Section 505 (2) of the IPC and produced him before a local court that sent him to judicial custody.
·         Police constable Ramkumar Yadav said one Anil Hemraj Prajapati, 21, had lodged a complaint against Khan, a resident of Kailash Marg in Jhabua town.

Taking Law Unto Its Own Hands, Shiv Sena shuts 500 meat shops in old Gurgaon

March 29, 2017

As many as 500 meat shops, including a KFC outlet, in old Gurgaon were allegedly shut down by over 200 Shiv Sainiks for nine days on account of Navratri. They also threatened the shop owners yesterday to shut their establishments on every Tuesday.

Representation Image

"We have served notices to meat shop owners, including KFC, and other fast food outlets to shut their shops till Navratri ends and on every Tuesday," Gautam Saini, the president of Shiv Sena, Gurgaon, said to PTI.

The Sena workers assembled at Palam Vihar yesterday and forced the closure of meat market and dhabas such as Bismillah Khan eatery in others areas too.

However, ACP-PRO of Gurgaon Police Manish Sehgal said that though some meats shops were shut down but they were later opened. These shops have commercial licence to sell meat. Strict action will be taken against those forcing closure of shops illegally, he said.

No Count of Deaths in Sewers and Septic tanks

March 29, 2017

According to S Anand, a report in 2007, has estimated that 22,327 sanitation workers die every year.

Reports on the deaths of sanitation workers in sewers and septic tanks has become a regular phenomenon. According to S Anand, a report in 2007, has estimated that 22,327 sanitation workers die every year. Leaving out the deaths, even the health hazards of people working in such occupations are numerous. If proper precautions are not taken, the workers die a premature death due to the deteriorated health conditions. It is estimated that the lifespan of a sanitation workers is 45-50 years.

After a prolonged struggle by the workers and civil society groups working on the issue, Government of India had passed “The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.” This law has a provision for compensating and rehabilitating people working as manual scavengers. In a similar tone the Supreme Court gave its verdict on 27 March 2014 to provide compensation to the family members in the event of death of the worker in a manhole. In spite of many deaths and a law existing for disbursement of ex-gratia, currently there is no provision existing to register such deaths separately in the police records. Such deaths are recorded under ‘accidental deaths’ which makes it difficult for people and orgnisations to monitor deaths that occur in sewers and septic tanks.

In this context, Bezwada Wilson of Safari Karmachari Andolan, has written to the Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs. He has asked the ministry to add a separate classification of the deaths that occur in the sewers, septic tanks etc. to facilitate compensation and relief work for the families of the deceased.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

“A Times Now journalist spent a day with meat seller and here’s what he found out”

March 29, 2017

Shahid chacha, a 57-year-old “young” man, is furious, helpless and truly devastated as he has not earned a penny for the past 7 days. He says his family of six is forced to survive on his savings.

You must be wondering what has gone wrong with him. Let me bail you out of your misery.

Shahid chacha, or Mohammad Shahid Qureshi, is one of the biggest sellers of ice in Lucknow whose business has been virtually razed to dust ever since all the “illegal” slaughterhouses have been shut down in and across Lucknow.

“My entire business was dependent on the amount of meat that used to be exported from Lucknow as my job was to ensure a proper supply of ice for those delivery vans,” says Shahid, wondering if he would be able to bring his business back on track ever.

A major chunk of his business comprised of selling ice to mutton and beef sellers exporting their meat to traders or companies outside Lucknow but a blanket ban on the illegal slaughterhouses has hit him hard, so much so that he is mulling selling fruits in the local market besides selling ice to ice cream vendors in Lucknow.

The ban on slaughterhouses has considerably impacted lives and livelihood of thousands of people like Shahid chacha. The condition is such that small traders have no option but to start thinking about an alternative job option.

To get a real sense of their problems, I spent a whole day with the meat traders in old Lucknow’s Balojpura Lane that houses the most number of meat shops in the city of Kebabs.

While closure of slaughterhouses has resulted in downing of shutters of the meat shops of almost all the meat sellers here, the other big problem, in fact the biggest of them all, is sustaining the livelihood of thousands of daily wagers, who work in these retail meat shops.

“The condition is such that these workers have now started selling things of their basic needs — utensils, old clothes — to feed themselves. Those who have some ornaments are selling them off to sustain,” a jeweller told me on the condition of anonymity.

I myself roamed around the area and found the condition to be really disheartening. All the shops are shut, there’s no business whatsoever. People are planning to meet government with their side of the story.

It happened too on Tuesday when a delegation of workers met UP Health Minister Sidharth Nath Singh with their specific points and said they were “partially satisfied” with the meeting and the response that Singh has given them.

But, the real question is; who is really responsible for this fiasco?

Now, according to traders, their licenses have not been renewed for the past three years and as a result their businesses have now become illegal.

Question must be asked why Akhilesh Yadav mustn’t be held accountable to answer as to why their licenses weren’t renewed? Is it also not a responsibility of Azam Khan, the then Urban Development Minister, to come out and explain why the licenses were not renewed?

But for now, when the illegal slaughterhouses have been forcibly and rightly shut down, what it has led to is a massive scarcity of meat — especially buffalo and goat meat — in the market and as a result, some of the iconic restaurants and eatery joints in Lucknow and across Uttar Pradesh are suffering.

But will the problem of these age-old traders end? Will their be the “Buff Kebab” on platters of the Nawabs? Will the Yogi Adityanath govt renew their licenses in the coming days?

Well, these are some questions answer of which will be clear once a proper meeting is done and orders are made public in this regard!

But till then, While Nawabs are missing Kebabs, traders and retailers are waiting for that golden message (read order) from the government that can bring back cheers on their faces and glory in their businesses!

But for people in Lucknow, you’ll have to forget your favourite”Buff Kebabs” at the Tundey Kababi for sometime now.

Courtesy: Janta Ka Reporter

UP’s Anti-Abattoir Campaign Could Cripple Prime Revenue- And Job-Generating Industries

March 29, 2017

The closure of Uttar Pradesh’s slaughterhouses could leave a couple of million people jobless in the state, affect its allied industries and choke small but important revenue streams for its poor farmers, especially in drought-prone areas, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of available data on India’s meat, leather and livestock industries.

A cow walks past a closed slaughterhouse in Allahabad, India

Half of Uttar Pradesh’s licensed slaughterhouses and scores of illegal ones have been closed after an order from new chief minister Yogi Adityanath against those that do not follow the law.

The drive against slaughterhouses could impact three critical industries in UP: Meat packaging, livestock and leather. With some of India’s worst development indicators, stagnant agriculture and industry, as IndiaSpend reported in March 2017, India’s most populous state is also one of its poorest with the second-highest unemployment rate–after Jharkhand–among India’s eighth most socioeconomically backward states.

With a population of 200 million people, equivalent to the population of Brazil, UP’s economy is the size of the tiny middle-eastern country of Qatar, which has 2.4 million people, the same as the UP town of Bijnore.

In 2015-16, more people per 1,000 were unemployed in UP (58), compared to the Indian average (37), and youth unemployment was especially high, with 148 for every 1,000 people between the ages of 18 and 29 years in UP unemployed, compared to the Indian average of 102, according to 2015-16 labour ministry data.

Meat-packing and leather industries make up the major share of India’s export earnings, with UP contributing significantly. UP accounted for nearly 43% of buffalo-meat exports in 2015-16, the highest among all Indian states, according to data published by the Agriculture and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA). Leather ranks eighth among India’s top export earners, with about 46% of what is produced being exported, according to the Council for Leather Exports (CLE). A third of these exports go from Kanpur in UP, a city where the leather industry, as IndiaSpend reported in February 2017, is already in crisis.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) election manifesto for the UP assembly election had promised to shut all illegal slaughterhouses in the state. But “over-enthusiastic” officials–who appeared to be acting indiscriminately, shutting down even abattoirs with licenses–are now being reined in by the government, according to some media reports.

IndiaSpend research shows that the slaughterhouse ecology is complex and supports diverse, rural and urban economic and social systems not just in UP but nationwide. Here is a look at the three industries that will be most affected by the campaign.

1. Meat: UP accounts for 43% of India’s buffalo-meat exports

Illegal slaughterhouses being targeted by the UP government dominate the meat market in India: 4,000 are registered and more than 25,000 are not, among units that cater to the domestic market, according to this APEDA report. Even in the export market, registered and unregistered slaughterhouses both produce meat, APEDA acknowledges in this report.

UP is the largest producer of meat in India, according to the Agriculture Statistics Report, 2015. In 2014-15, it contributed 21% of the meat produced in India. Of the 75 slaughterhouses registered with the APEDA for meat export, as many as 49 are in UP. This means the state is likely to have the large number of slaughterhouses, many illegal.

Source: Agricultural Statistics At A Glance 2015

Buffalo meat is a major export from India, going to more than 40 countries. In the 2015-16, UP recorded the highest buffalo meat export, followed by Maharashtra. In 2015-16, India exported 13.14 lakh metric tonnes (MT) buffalo meat of worth Rs 26,685.42 crore.

Source: Compiled from APEDA Agri Exchange data

There is no reliable estimate of people employed in UP’s slaughterhouses and meat shops, but it is likely to be in tens of thousands. Around 6.7 million Indians are employed in the country’s food-processing industry, which includes slaughterhouses and meat processing units, according to the Agriculture Statistics, 2015.

The issue of illegal abattoirs in UP is not new. The erstwhile Samajwadi Party government had also issued a government order in June 2014 to probe their operations. In May 2015, the National Green Tribunal ordered the state government to act against illegal slaughterhouses to curb the pollution caused by them. The BJP government’s move goes a step further, banning not only illegal slaughtering but also licensed mechanical operations, which are mostly legal and focussed on exports.

Previous governments, acknowledging the advantage of mechanised slaughter technology over traditional methods in increasing and improving output for the export market, had offered financial
assistance for upgrades.

2. Livestock: UP recorded 14% growth, indicating economic dependence

Meat production is entirely dependent on livestock, a sector that contributed nearly 4.11% to India’s GDP at current prices in 2012-13. It also contributes nearly 25.6% of output, by value, at current prices in the agriculture, fishing and forestry sectors, according to the Livestock Census Report, 2012.

Source: Agricultural Statistics at a glance 2015 (in million)

As the table above shows, India houses a significant percentage of the world’s livestock. A comparison of the last two livestock censuses reveals a 3.33% decrease in livestock in 2012 compared to 2007. But UP, along with Gujarat and Assam, registered growth (14%), indicating the economy’s dependence on livestock and allied businesses.

Livestock are an important economic resource, especially in rural areas. Cattle, buffalo, goat and sheep are maintained by agricultural families, mostly those with small land holdings, and by landless labourers who use them primarily for milk and also meat. Cattle are also loaned for agriculture and transportation. Poor families sell stray cattle to butchers. In drought-affected areas, such as parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and UP, cattle are often sold to tide over economic crises.

3. Leather: Majority of employees from disadvantaged communities

In 2014-15, India leather exports were valued at $6.4 billion (Rs 39,097 crore) and in 2015-16, at $5.8 billion (Rs 38,396 crore), according to Council for Leather Exports data.

Source: Council for Leather Exports

The Indian leather industry provides formal and informal employment to 2.5 million people, mostly from disadvantaged communities: A third of leather workers are women and a fourth are scheduled castes and tribes, according to this 2009 study by the Labour Bureau of India. Leather workers who are not from traditional tanning communities or are not Muslims come from poor agricultural families, according to a study by the Centre for Education and Communication (CEC), an advocacy.

(Singh is an Associate Fellow at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies in New Delhi.)

Courtesy: India Spend

JNU Students March to UGC, Struggle to Continue

March 28, 2017

JNU fights the UGC Gazette Notification

JNU students and teachers took out a demonstration today, against the UGC gazette notification of 2016. Thousands of students and teachers gathered in front of UGC today. A small scuffle took place between the protesters and the police.

We talked to the JNUSU Vice President Amal P.P. “A panel of representatives from JNUSU and JNUTA are waiting to talk to the UGC Chairperson. 4 teachers, JNUSU president and I, and 4 other MA final year students are waiting for the Chairperson of UGC for past 45 minutes. During our last visit as well, they made us wait. Last time, the UGC chairperson did not come at all. Only a Mr. Jagdish from UGC came and met us. He took the memorandum and walked away.”, he said.

“Police has lathicharged our peaceful protest. Many students have been hurt, some of them have even been hospitalized”, Amal added.

The UGC gazette enforced on JNU has led to a massive seat cut for research programmes. JNU is primarily a research university with 67% of the students enrolled in research. It has faced a huge set-back with the new UGC implementation. M.Phil and Ph.D seats in JNU have been drastically cut down by 84%. The seats have been reduced from 1,234 last year to 194 this year.

With the new prospectus, there would be no admissions for research this year in centres like Centre for Sociology, Centre for Pol. Science, Centre for History, Centre for Indian Languages and many more. The seats have been slashed in many other important centres as well. JNU’s oldest School, School of International Studies, will offer MPhil/PhD seats in only 3 out of 13 centres.

Three schools –School of physical sciences, School of computational and School of integrative sciences, and biotechnology – and two special Centres – Centre for law and governance and Special Centre for Sanskrit studies – have no seats for the integrated MPhil-PhD programme.

The JNUSU has also continuously pointed how the current Vice Chancellor, on diktats of the RSS, is dismantling the core structure of the University. Their press release on 3rd Jan read:

"The VC is repeatedly tampering with the autonomy and quality of the University in deciding course curriculum through his insistence on imposing courses dictated by the partisan views of the government of the day. For example, while JNU has no specialisation or departments related to areas like AYUSH, the VC forced the decision that the ‘AYUSH fellowship holders will be allowed to take admissions’ and also that the ‘AYUSH degrees can be considered for equivalence by centres’, without offering any academic rationale as to which centres and faculty will admit such students! In a situation where the already existing academic infrastructure is crumbling down, where no new hostel has been constructed for students, the sudden moves to introduce such spurious proposals is nothing but a toast to the loyalty of the JNU administration to the political agenda of the RSS-dictated government, at the cost of academic rigour and the inclusive infrastructure of JNU.” Read more here.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

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Bihar BJP Protests Budget Allocations for Minorities

Affirming India’s Diversity, Mamata Govt rolls out Meat Delivery Vans

Taking Law Unto Its Own Hands, Shiv Sena shuts 500 meat shops in old Gurgaon

No Count of Deaths in Sewers and Septic tanks

According to S Anand, a report in 2007, has estimated that 22,327 sanitation workers die every year.

“A Times Now journalist spent a day with meat seller and here’s what he found out”

UP’s Anti-Abattoir Campaign Could Cripple Prime Revenue- And Job-Generating Industries

JNU Students March to UGC, Struggle to Continue

JNU fights the UGC Gazette Notification

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