The Madhya Pradesh cabinet on Monday approved a bill providing for seizing vehicles involved in the transportation of cows for slaughter and also gave its nod to another proposed legislation under which state ministers will henceforth have to pay their income tax.
The cabinet approved another bill that seeks to impose penalty on owners for not filling or plugging open borewells, a move that comes in the backdrop of several incidents of children falling in open borewells and dying in the state.
A cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, was held in the assembly campus in Bhopal where several important decisions were taken.
It approved a bill for amending the Madhya Pradesh Cow Slaughter Prohibition Act, 2004, and giving right to district collectors to confiscate vehicles involved in transporting cows for slaughter, an official said.
Under the Act, illegal transportation of beef and cows is banned in Madhya Pradesh.
Chief Minister Yadav, in a statement, said on several occasions vehicles caught while illegally transporting cows get released on court orders.
"We have decided that vehicles involved in cow slaughter will be confiscated and will not get released," the CM said.
According to the official, the cabinet also a nod to a bill to prevent incidents of children felling in open borewells.
Under the proposed law, if an open borewell is found not plugged, penalty will be levied on its owner, the official said, adding the public health engineering department is authorised to take action in this regard.
Yadav cited several incidents of children falling into open borewells and loss of lives in such tragedies.
The law has been proposed to take action in cases related to open borewells. Carelessness and negligence will not be allowed in this regard, the CM warned and appealed to owners to plug open borewells.
The cabinet also gave its nod to a proposal to amend the Madhya Pradesh Minister (Salary and Allowance) Amendment Bill, 2024, and make a provision for state ministers to deposit their income tax instead of the government bearing such burden.
A decision in this regard, which ended a 52-year-old rule, was taken in the previous cabinet meeting and the bill was approved on Monday, the official said.
The state government had been depositing income tax of ministers on their salaries and allowances since 1972.
If the bill is approved by the assembly and becomes a law, ministers themselves will have to pay their income tax.
The cabinet also gave its nod to a proposal for modernisation and renovation of Vallabh Bhawan, one of the state secretariat buildings, at a cost of Rs 107.27 crore.
