DELHI: It is learnt that a proposal to introduce one or two meatless days in Delhi is under the consideration of the local administration. The authorities are also considering the general question of preventing the slaughter of milch cattle, young buffaloes and calves.

There has been an abnormal increase in the number of cattle slaughtered in Delhi during the war time. The military contractors have also been busy buying meat in rural areas of the province and have offered most tempting prices to the cattle-owners.

The Delhi Municipal Committee made some bye-laws prohibiting the slaughter of young animals, but no attempt seems to have been made to enforce these bye-laws.

The problem has now assumed such proportions that it is no longer possible for the authorities to maintain their complacency and they are now contemplating the placing of more stringent restrictions on the slaughter of useful cattle.

[Meanwhile,] appalling unsanitary conditions in the streets, lanes and by-lanes of Delhi city [have] been of late, the cause of serious complaints. Heaps of dirt, which sometimes are not removed for days together by the sweepers are seen in the streets every few hundred steps. (Dawn, Delhi)

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2014