President temporarily suspends cattle transport licenses

Saturday, 28 October 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

President Maithripala Sirisena has given instructions to temporarily suspend the issuing of licenses to transport cattle, the President’s Office said in a statement yesterday.

Incidents of illegal transporting of cattle are rapidly increasing and these activities have a huge impact on the dairy industry as well as agricultural needs, it said.

Accordingly, until an appropriate process is implemented, issuing of licenses to transport cattle will be temporarily suspended. At present the issuing of licenses to transport cattle is done by the District Secretary.

Various serious accidents and incidents resulting in fatalities were reported from different parts of the country when illegally transporting cattle. On Thursday two young women died when they were run over by a lorry illegally transporting cattle that was being chased by police in Anuradhapura.