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Kerala HC stays Lakshadweep orders to shut dairy farms and remove non-veg from school meal

The court directed the administration to take no further action on orders to shut down dairy farms run by the island's animal husbandry department and to remove chicken and other meat items from the midday menu in schools until a counter-affidavit is filed.

Kerala HC stays Lakshadweep orders to shut dairy farms and remove non-veg from school meal-VPN
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Thiruvananthapuram, First Published Jun 22, 2021, 5:49 PM IST

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday imposed an interim stay on the controversial reforms enforced by Lakshadweep Administrator Praful Khoda Patel. 

The court directed the administration to take no further action on orders to shut down dairy farms run by the island's animal husbandry department and to remove chicken and other meat items from the midday menu in schools until a counter-affidavit is filed.

The high court came in response to a petition filed by Lakshadweep native Ajmal Ahamed against the decisions taken by the Lakshadweep administration.

The petition claimed that the administration's decision, cows in the dairy farms were dying without protection. 

The petition also said that some private companies, including those from Gujarat, were being brought to Lakshadweep. However, the administration said that there were very few cows in Lakshadweep, and this was causing huge losses.

CPI-M leader and former Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said that the court directive was "the first major set back to Praful Patel, autocratic Administrator of Lakshadweep: Kerala HC stays arbitrary and discriminatory orders closing down dairy farms and banning meat from the diet of school children. His controversial other actions are also being challenged in the court."

The Lakshadweep administration has been hit a slew of litigations over its controversial policies. 

The administrator's decisions have met with opposition from people within the island and political representative cutting across parties. 

His policies like reversing the policy of ban of liquor, a ban on cow slaughter, preventive detention law and a draft regulation proposing sweeping changes in land development regulations have invited protests and claims that the administrator was destroying the heritage of the island territory.

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