The High Court has issued an order asking the government to form a seven-member committee of expert to stop the use of steroids to fatten sacrificial animals.
The HC divisional bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Mohammad Ullah passed the order yesterday following a writ petition filed by Advocate Manjil Morshed on behalf of Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh.
The secretaries of the Home Ministry, commerce secretary, food secretary and family and welfare ministry were asked to form the committee.
The committee will consist of health experts, doctors, veterinarians and nutritionists.
The court also directed the expert committee to submit a guideline in this regard to the health ministry within eight weeks.
The court also issued a six-week rule calling upon the respondents to explain why their inaction and failure to take necessary steps in this regard should not be declared illegal.
On September 22, a writ petition was filed with the High Court seeking directives on the government to appoint veterinary doctors and to form an expert committee to examine health of the sacrificial animals at all cattle markets in the capital this year.
In the petition, Manjil Morshed said: “Every year, artificially fattened cattle, especially cows, are sold as sacrificial animals at these cattle markets. A section of traders use steroids (hormone group medicine) such as Dexamithason, Cortisol, Bitamithason, Hydrocortison, Ciproheptadine and Uria, Oradex, Cortan, Adam-33, Predanisolon and Decason, among others, to fatten cattle to earn more money.”
