The Uttar Pradesh government has approved a bill to shift all slaughterhouses outside city limits, The Hindu reported on Thursday. However, the bill allows animal slaughter within the city for religious purposes.

The state Cabinet made the decision to give its stamp of approval to the Uttar Pradesh Nagar Nigam (Amendment) Bill, 2018, and the Uttar Pradesh Nagar Palika (Amendment) Bill, 2018, on Wednesday. The amended bills have also reduced the powers and duties of municipal corporations and boards, which will now only regulate abattoirs, The Indian Express reported.

Cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh said the government will pass an ordinance to implement these amendments since the Assembly is not in session. “We are removing the provisions related to operating and establishing the slaughterhouses and are only keeping the regulation provision,” Singh told The Indian Express. “The government’s job is only to regulate.”

Sections 237 and 238 of the Uttar Pradesh Nagar Palika Act, 1916, and sections 429 and 30 of the Uttar Pradesh Nagar Nigam Act, 1959, are in “direct conflict” with provisions of central laws on cruelty against animals and the Food Safety Act of 2006, the state government said.