Tribune News Service
Lucknow, August 7
Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath has come up with a new scheme to tackle stray cattle menace that will also provide additional income to farmers.
Under the “Mukhya Mantri Nirashit, Be-sahara Gauvansh Sahbhagita Yojana” (Chief Minister’s destitute cattle participation scheme), farmers will get a daily dole to take care of stray cattle.
Approved at a Cabinet meeting presided over by Yogi, the scheme under the first phase will hand over 1 lakh stray cattle currently lodged in the state government-run shelters to farmers and other people who are willing to take care of them. For this, a budget of Rs 109.50 crore has been set aside. The caretaker will be given Rs 30 per day per animal, which will be directly transferred into the account of the caretaker. If a person takes care of one animal, he or she can get Rs 900 each month. Anyone ready to take care of 10 animals can earn up to Rs 9,000 per month.
According to cabinet minister Shrikant Sharma, the upkeep of stray cattle was the top priority of the Yogi government. As per the 2012 cow census, there were 205.66 lakh cattle in the state of which approximately 10-12 lakh were stray. To take care of these stray animals, the state government has 523 registered ‘gaushalas’ or cow shelters and more are being built. Besides, there are many permanent or temporary shelter facilities.
Still the minister said taking proper care of the stray cattle was a gigantic task which could not be adequately accomplished without public participation. The district magistrate would prepare a list of willing farmers or other interested persons. Ear tagging of the animals would be done before handing it over to the farmers.
The DM would track the animals and monitor the scheme. To assist the DM, committees are being set up at the tehsil, block and district level. The caretakers would not be allowed to sell the cattle or leave them stray.
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