Elphinstone stampede: HC pulls up activists for closing eyes to problem

The Bombay High Court today castigated "so-called activists" for approaching it on the issue of safety of commuters only after the Elphinstone Road station stampede and asked why they woke up to the "serious and sensitive" issue only after the death of so many people.

On September 29, a stampede on the stairwell of a narrow foot over bridge (FOB) at the station left 23 dead and over 30 injured.

Soon after the mishap, four public interest litigations (PILs) were filed in the high court seeking directions to the railways to take measures to ensure that such an incident is not repeated at any other railway station.

The HC today noted that only after so many people died that the activists realised and came up with petitions.

"The station concerned and bridge is in existence since 1867, according to the petitions. Till date...till 23 people died...till the incident everybody closed their eyes to the problem. Now after the incident, these so-called activists have woken up and come with PILs," a division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice N M Jamdar said.
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Inside story behind Modi govt's move to regulate cattle slaughter markets

While there has been outrage over the new rules framed by the government banning the sale of cattle slaughter, the exercise to frame these rules started out to put an end to something happening in neighbouring Nepal. The government is on record saying that the new Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules 2017 was conceived on the directions of the Supreme Court (SC). The SC, in turn, had set the ball rolling after a petition filed by Gauri Maulekhi, animal rights activist. Maulekhia told Business Standard, “The government has done the right thing by introducing these rules. Yet a lot of misinformed people are criticising this move. They should look at the despicable conditions in which animals meant for slaughter are treated at animal markets. I am completely happy with the new rules. If we have to be secure as a nation, we have to protect our livestock from the cattle mafia.”

Maulekhi’s petition seemed to have achieved what she hadn’t set out to achieve in the first place. “That is the beauty of a Public Interest Litigation. It doesn’t need to be confined to specifics. Although I wanted to put an end to ritual sacrifice of cattle in Nepal, the highest court directed that rules be framed for an end to barbaric treatment of animals at various markets where the organised mafia operates” said Maulekhi.

The petition sought the court’s intervention after pointing out that cattle was being illegally transported from Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal “across the India-Nepal border for a gruesome and barbaric ritual sacrifice at the Gadhimai festival held every five years in the village of Bariyapur, across the India-Nepal border. In a space of two days over 5 lakh animals are slaughtered making it the largest animal sacrifice in the world.”
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