Bhopal
Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav has said that the state government is continuously working for cow protection and cow promotion. Our effort is to ensure proper care of the cattle, provide them proper food and nutrition and along with this, the income of the cattle rearers also increases. The government is bringing many schemes for this. Animal husbandry and milk production are being promoted in the state. Animals living in registered cow shelters were earlier given a feed subsidy of Rs 20 per animal per day, which is now being increased to Rs 40. The government also plans to give bonus to milk producers.
Chief Minister Dr. Yadav today took a review meeting of the Animal Husbandry and Dairy Department in the Ministry. Minister of State for Animal Husbandry and Dairy with Independent Charge Shri Lakhan Patel, Chief Secretary Shri Anurag Jain, Additional Chief Secretary Dr. Rajesh Rajoura, Principal Secretary Shri Manish Rastogi, Principal Secretary Animal Husbandry and Dairy Shri Umakant Umrao were present in the meeting.
Chief Minister Dr. Yadav instructed in the meeting that all the cow shelters running in the state should be inspected. The grant amount should not be misused. Full cooperation of the society should also be taken in the operation of cow shelters. All necessary facilities should be provided for the cows in the cow shed. The Chief Minister directed that the grazing land should be vacated by running a Panchayat-wise campaign.
Chief Minister Dr. Yadav said that a plan should also be made soon for rearing cows in homes. Cow’s milk is extremely nutritious and has an important contribution in eliminating malnutrition in children. Special attention should be paid to the production and marketing of cow milk. Cow milk should be provided to malnourished children.
Animal Husbandry and Dairy Minister Shri Lakhan Patel suggested that to identify the domesticated and destitute cows, different colored tags should be attached to them, so that the identification of the cows can be made easier. Minister Shri Patel also talked about setting up a bio-CNG plant. Chief Minister Dr. Yadav agreed to this. Chief Secretary Shri Anurag Jain suggested that maximum use of sex sorted semen should be made for improving the breed of cattle and producing calves.
Principal Secretary Shri Umrao said that according to the 20th animal census, there are one crore 87 lakh cows in the state. There are 2190 registered cow shelters in the state, out of which 627 are run by non-government voluntary organizations and 1563 cow shelters are run under the Mukhyamantri Gau Seva Yojana. There are a total of 3 lakh 15 thousand cows in these cow sheds, which are given grants. For this, a total budget provision of Rs 252 crore has been made in the financial year 2024-25. If the grant amount is increased to Rs 40 from January 2025, an additional provision of Rs 34 crore 65 lakh will be required in this financial year.
