The Yogi Adityanath government on Tuesday made the UP Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955 more stringent by increasing the jail terms and penalties for various offences as well as deciding to publicly name and shame the offenders.
Bringing an ordinance to make these changes, the state government claimed that there were loopholes in the existing law which would often allow offenders to go scot-free. The new law increases the maximum jail term from the existing seven years to 10 years. Also, the existing penalty of Rs 10,000 has been increased to Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for various offences....