Though the ABPS has no reason to doubt the Govt.'s assessment of the situation, it would like to emphasise that the cease fire is not an end in itself. Acutely suffering from discriminatory and partisan policies of the state Government, for the last more than half a century, a demand for Union Territory status for Laddakh and an agitation for the separate statehood for Jammu are getting stronger by each day. There is also a problem of rehabilitating the Kashmiri Hindus who have been uprooted from their homes, because of a rabidly communal mindset of a large section of Kashmiri Muslims. The committee's recommendations will be placed before the ABKM meeting in coming July. It is unfortunate that a country where a long glorious tradition of Cow-Protection is writ large should resort to merciless slaughter of cattle wealth just to placate a handful of Muslim groups and to earn a little foreign exchange.
Slaughter houses are on an increase and methods are being mechanised.
Nearly 3 lakhs of cattle are mercilessly slaughtered every day. Meat-export which stood at 70,000 tons in 1976 has grown fast and by 1997 reached an enormous 13,80,000 tons. Strangely, what was propogated as a profitable economic activity is receiving government support. Its various departments are providing monetary subsidies for the construction of slaughter-houses, and for production and export of meat. As a result the proportion of 430 Cattle for 1,000 population in 1951, has come down to a bare 50 for the same number today.