NT Reporter
Panaji
The ongoing problems faced by meat traders in Maharashtra and Goa may soon be resolved after a delegation met Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, to discuss issues related to cattle transportation.
Manna Bepari, president of the All Goa Meat Traders’ Association, said, “Our counterparts from Maharashtra met Nitin Gadkari regarding the ongoing issue of cattle transportation. We fully support this delegation and will stand with them in the future as well. We are hoping for a better outcome from this meeting.”
Seeking to change the law that currently allows only six animals to be transported in a lorry, Faheem Qureshi, advocate and president of the Jammatul Qureshi Action Committee said, “We requested the minister to increase the limit to 16 animals. The minister and his team listened to us carefully and gave us positive feedback.”
He added that the minister had approved the request and directed his staff to make it a priority. “The minister told his legal team to complete the necessary work within eight days,” Faheem said.
“The minister advised us to remove the rubber partition so that when the vehicle returns after delivering animals, it can carry other legal items like mangoes. Earlier, such vehicles could only carry animals, but now this restriction has been lifted,” he added.
Dr Asif Qureshi, a representative of the Maharashtra delegation, said, “Today, this delegation has come to Delhi. We met Minister Gadkari, and he directed us to the Transport Board. There, we met the Transport Secretary and the Additional Secretary.”
“We had a very good discussion as they already had knowledge about the issue of transportation. We explained our points. Additional Secretary Mehmood, an IAS officer, took our matter seriously. He assured us that within the next week or ten days, there will be a legal discussion on this issue,” he said.
“Today, we gave our message to the senior officials who are responsible for making final rules and amendments,” Qureshi said.
