Beef license for foreigners only if law permits: Govt

New Delhi, February 7

We could consider offering special permits to foreigners to eat beef only if the law against cow slaughter permitted it, the Haryana Government clarified on Sunday.

“There is a ban on liquor in Gujarat. But there is a special permission under which foreigners can consume alcohol. The Haryana chief minister was asked whether it would likewise give special permission to foreigners to eat beef in the state. He answered that although the people of Haryana did not eat beef and were against cow slaughter, it was possible provided there is a provision to that effect in the act (banning cow slaughter),” Jawahar Yadav, OSD to the Haryana Chief Minister, said.

Yadav also said the government’s act had no such provision yet.

His statement came after reports quoted Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar as saying that the government could consider given special licences to foreigners to eat beef.

The Haryana Government had introduced a stringent law banning the sale and consumption of beef as well as their trafficking and slaughter, with rigorous imprisonment of three to 10 years for violations. President Pranab Mukherjee approved the law in November 2015. — ANI