Meghalaya CM: Centre curbing rights of states

Guwahati: Mukul Sangma, the chief minister of Congress-ruled Meghalaya, has started mobilising non-BJP chief ministers against the ban imposed on cattle trade for slaughter, and said that it was also an infringement on rights of the state.

In his bid to mount pressure on the Centre to withdraw the new notification, Mr Sangma, in a letter to his Tripura counterpart Manik Sarkar, said that the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017, is an infringement of a state’s rights to regulate items on List-II of the State List, which include cattle market.

“The Centre should have trodden carefully after due consultations with state governments before proposing changes in the regulation of livestock markets,” Mr Sangma said.

Stressing the need to oppose such unilateral moves by the Central government, Mr Sangma said that it was a complete infringement on the rights of states.

Referring the theory of cooperative federalism, the Congress chief minister said, “The state governments must assert collectively to dissuade the Union government from such actions which directly dilute the federal structure of our great nation. This notification will set a very wrong precedence in negating the spirit of the federal structure.” Mr Sangma, in his letter, said that the new rules violated the basic rights of a person to freedom of food choice.