Staff Reporter :
India and Myanmar earn around Tk 60,000 crore every year by cattle-smuggling to Bangladesh, said the country’s meat traders on Saturday.
Bangladesh Meat Traders Association (BMTA) and Dhaka Metropolitan Meat Merchant Association (DMMMA) said it at a joint press conference held at the Bangladesh Crime Reporters’ Association (CRAB) office in the capital.
They placed a five-point demand including banning the imports of cattle, buffalo and meat from India and Myanmar for the sake of domestic animal husbandry.
BMTA President Farid Ahmed said that India and Myanmar earned around Tk 60,000 crore in every year by cattle smuggling.
“Bangladesh can earn around Tk 80,000 by exporting flesh, bones, horns, veins, belly, hides fulfilling the country’s demands if Char and hilly areas can be brought under animal husbandry. So the country’s farmers should be given more agricultural loans,” he also said.
The Secretary General of DMMMA Rabiul Islam said in his written statement, they can sell a kg of meat at Tk 300 if the government and rich people gift cows, buffaloes, goats and lambs from their Jakat funds to poor farmers, widows and unemployed youths.
He alleges that in the name of public safety, the law enforcers provide security to the illegal money of the lessees in ‘Qorbani Cattle Market’.
“Consumers do not get any solution even with complaints,” he said.
He said, If we give 10 and 20 thousand crore taka in agricultural loans, the farmers of the country will be able to earn 60 to 70 thousand crore taka in foreign exchange annually by raising animals in the char areas and meeting our demands and exporting them abroad.
If the animal trafficking between India and Myanmar is not stopped, domestic animal husbandry development and border killings will not be stopped.
Rabiul mentioned that the main obstacle to the development and export of leather industry is to meet the waste and water treatment plant CETP. If exports are not active, we will not be able to enjoy the success of the development of the leather industrial city at the cost of hundreds of crores by the government.
Referring to the need to fix the price of raw hides for sacrifices, he said, “We need to impart training to the workers on meat cutting and skin collection.”
It is mentionable that the rent was higher than the fixed by the government, he said, “A cow is sold at the market three times to bring it from the border to Dhaka. You have to pay rent three times. This increases the price of cattle.”
In addition, the lessee takes more money than the fixed rent. On the other hand, are bullies along the way. It needs to stop.
“City Corporations, consumer rights protection and local government can run mobile courts in the markets by stopping the dishonest activities of the lessees,” he said.
