Hardening its earlier stand and making it compulsory for all states to implement, the Centre is ready with a Bill prohibiting the sale of beef across the country, slapping jail terms and fines for cruelty against cows.

A draft of the new Bill called the Prevention of Cruelty to Cow Bill 2003 will be put to the Cabinet next week and may be introduce this session.

Some of the salient features of the Bill are:

 For killing a cow, imprisonment upto five years or fine Fine of Rs 5,000 for causing injury to the cow. A three-month jail term for export of cow and sale of beef. Complete prohibition on sale of beef. Establishment of institute by the government for maintenance and care of uneconomical cows. Restriction on export of cows.

The Government is enacting the Bill under Entry 17 of the Concurrent List, in which a Central legislation prevails over that of states. Earlier, the Government invoked Article 252 which meant that states were free to reject or accept the Central legislation.

In fact, the letter to all the states asking for their approval was ready to be circulated but when Rajnath Singh took charge as Agriculture Minister, he decided to send it to the Union Law Ministry. This, in turn, suggested that the provisions under Entry 17 of the Concurrent list be used. With elections round the corner, the Bill is meant to turn the tables on Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijay Singh who wrote to the Prime Minister asking him to bring central legislation on cow slaughter.

According to him, if the government failed to do so, he would go ahead and bring a state legislation.

Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura are the only states that allow cow slaughter. Under the proposed law, cow-slaughter will be a criminal offence in these states as well.

The backdrop to this Bill is the National Commission for Cattle that was set up in dramatic circumstances two years ago when Kanchi Shankacharya threatened a fast unto death over the plight of countrys cows.

In 1,500 pages, the Commission led by Guman Mal Lodha had made 51 recommendations including amending POTA to include cow smugglers and prohibition of slaughter of cows and its progeny be made a fundamental right.

It had also recommended that the Constitution be amended to empower Parliament to make laws for prohibition of slaughter of cow and its progeny. It asked for cow slaughter to be made a non-bailable and cognizable offence with a minimum three year jail term and maximum 10 years rigourous imprisonment and a fine.

Although the Bill does not say so, it is clear that it takes inspirations from the recommendations of the Commission.