Patna : Newly appointed Animal Husbandry Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras on Monday said no new slaughter house will be opened in Bihar and that there will be a total ban on cow slaughter.

“No new slaughter houses will be opened and there will be a total ban on cow slaughter,” Paras told media here, adding that his department would not issue any licenses to set up new slaughter houses in the state.

Paras, younger brother of Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, was inducted by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in his cabinet on Saturday.

Early this year, the then opposition BJP demanded that illegal slaughter houses across the state should be sealed like in Uttar Pradesh.

According to officials, cow slaughter is banned in Bihar as per a 1955 law but it continues unabated because of a loophole that permits the killing of a cow, buffalo or bull that is more than 15 years old or diseased.

In the 2015 Bihar assembly polls, BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party President Amit Shah tried to play beef politics.

—IANS