O Panneerselvam’s meeting with Prime Minister

eople for Ethical Treatment of Animals

Jallikattu: TN CM urges youth to give up protest

NEW DELHI: The Centre appears to be sympathetic to the demand of Tamil Nadu on Jallikattu , but it will wait for the Supreme Court ’s final order on the bull-taming sport before taking its next call on the controversial issue.Since the matter is still pending as the apex court had last week reserved its verdict on petitions challenging Centre's 2016 notification allowing the sport, the environment minister Anil Madhav Dave did not want to comment on the issue at this juncture on Wednesday.Sources in his ministry, however, said that the Centre would have, in any case, an option to take Parliament route if the apex court insists on banning Jallikattu in its final verdict.Dave had last week blamed the previous UPA government for the current mess. He had on January 11 tweeted, “The mother of problem is the Congress-led UPA government which included bulls in performing list in 2011”.He had also tweeted that the matter was pending in the Supreme Court and the government was waiting for the decision.Meanwhile, officials in his ministry are waiting for the outcome of the Tamil Nadu chief minister Narendra Modi . The state chief minister will meet Modi on Thursday, seeking an ordinance allowing Jallikattu.The apext court had on last Thursday rejected a plea seeking to allow the controversial sport played during Pongal festival in Tamil Nadu and reserved its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging Centre's notification allowing the sport.The Centre had in January last year issued a notification lifting ban on Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu with certain restrictions. It was, however, challenged in the Supreme Court by Animal Welfare Board of India, P(PETA) India, a Bangalore-based NGO and others.The court had in 2014 banned Jallikattu on grounds of animal cruelty. It had on January 21 last year refused to re-examine its 2014 judgement. Later on July 26 last year, it had said that just because the bull-taming sport of Jallikattu was a centuries-old tradition, it could not be justified.