Lucknow:With an aim to make cow slaughter a stringent offence, the Yogi Adityanath Government in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday brought amendments in the Uttar Pradesh Cow Slaughter Prevention Act, 1955 making it punishable for maximum 10 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs five lakh.
Besides, the government has also decided to set up Uttar Pradesh Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency to speed up investment in the state.
The decisions were taken at the Cabinet meeting held through video conferencing here.A Government spokesperson said that as an approval of the state Legislature was required to make the amendments in the UP Cow Slaughter Act 1955 as an Act so till the both Houses of state legislature meet, an Ordinance would be passed with the consent of Governor.
''The aim of the UP Cow Slaughter Prevention Amendment Act was to ensure stringent action against the people involved in slaughtering cows because the previous UP Cow Slaughter Prevention Act 1955 was soft and the people were using the loopholes to hoodwink the law,'' the spokesperson further said.
As per the new amendment the slaughtering of cow or cow progeny would be punishable offence for three years to 10 years of imprisonment. In the earlier law it was seven years. The capital punishment has also been increased from Rs one lakh to Rs five lakh.
The Cow Slaughter Prevention Act was brought in UP in 1955 and was implemented on January 6, 1956. After that amendments in the Act were brought about in 1958, 1961, 1979 and 2002. ''Still there were some laxities and the Act was not effective enough to stop cow slaughter,'' the spokesperson stated.(UNI)