Congress into 'appeasement politics' over anti-cow slaughter bill: BJP chief Nalin Kumar Kateel
Mangaluru, Dec 10: Slamming the Congress over its opposition to Karnataka's anti-cow slaughter bill, the ruling BJP on Thursday charged its rival with resorting to 'politics of appeasement'.
State BJP chief Naleen Kumar Kateel said cows have a special place in the Indian culture and people have an emotional attachment to it.
The opposition party was resorting to 'appeasement politics' and "the Congress had always favoured cow slaughterers and their opposition to the Bill was not unexpected," he told reporters after performing 'Gau pooja' in front of the district BJP office here.
There was an urgent need to keep the Indian culture alive as the number of cattle in the country is declining, he claimed.
Kateel's charge against Congress comes a day after the state Assembly adopted the controversial ‘The Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Bill-2020’.
The bill seeks a complete ban on its slaughter and provides for stringent punishment to those who indulge in smuggling, illegal transportation and atrocities on the cattle.
The punishment for offenders includes a maximum of seven years' imprisonment and fine of Rs five lakh.
The Congress had staged a walkout from the Assembly on Thursday, after alleging the bill was not discussed for tabling in the Business Advisory Committee meeting earlier.
The BJP state chief congratulated Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu Chavan who took the initiative to introduce the bill keeping in mind the interests of farmers.
Kateel, a lok Sabha MP, said the government would table the Bill against 'love jihad' in the next Assembly session.
"Love jihad" is a coinage used by right wing activists to refer to the alleged campaign of Muslims forcing Hindu girls to convert in the guise of love.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
MP boat tragedy: Death toll rises to 10 with recovery of one more body; 3 tourists still missing
Jabalpur (PTI): The body of a child was retrieved on Saturday evening from Bargi Dam in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh, raising the death toll in the cruise boat tragedy that took place two days ago to ten, while search continued for three missing tourists.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, capsized during a storm on Thursday evening with some of the survivors alleging negligence and safety lapses such as life jackets not being distributed in time.
The body recovered on Saturday evening was possibly that of six-year-old Viraj Soni, said Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra.
"The identity will be confirmed after family members identify the body," he told PTI.
Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory at Khamaria, his five-year-old son Tamil, and another child Mayuram (5) who had come from southern India were still missing.
Authorities have arranged equipment to search deep waters of the dam and are getting a generator to facilitate diving operations, Mishra added.
Divers and disaster response teams have expanded the search radius to five km, he said.
Of the 41 identified passengers on board the ill-fated vessel, 28 were rescued, police said.
More than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, joined the search operation that resumed at 5 on Saturday morning. The operation, involving the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and local divers, was briefly affected at around 9 am due to strong winds, officials said.
Post-mortem examinations of nine deceased persons have been completed, Mishra said.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will also register a First Information Report in the case soon," he said.
Police said CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the boat while the identities of 41 passengers have been confirmed so far.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the tragedy and dismissed three crew members. It also banned operation of similar vessels in the state.
