Odisha government should take steps to check cattle smuggling: Maneka

Union minister and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi Tuesday said the Odisha government should take steps to check cattle smuggling.

The minister for women and child development said this on the sideline of a national conference on animal and environmental welfare at the National Law University here.

"A huge number of cattle are going out of Odisha every day to Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal from where they are being sent to Bangladesh," the Union minister said.

She alleged the Odisha government was doing nothing to check this. Accusing the police of allowing the racket to continue, Gandhi urged the state government to take charge of the situation.

Speaking on the use of formalin in pisciculture, the minister said it was not only dangerous but also criminal.

Expressing satisfaction over the decision of Airports Authority of India (AAI) to cancel its water aerodrome project in Chilika lake, the BJP leader said, "Chilika is not only the treasure of Odisha or India, it is a world treasure and it must be kept in its natural state as long as we can."