Yogi Adityanath says 44 out of 75 districts stray cattle-free after PM Modi promises new system
India Today
Soon after PM Modi promised a new policy to deal with stray cattle, the Uttar Pradesh government has clarified that 44 out of 75 districts in the state have been certified free of stray cattle.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised a new policy to deal with stray cattle after March 10, but the Uttar Pradesh government has come out to state that the problem is limited to only a few areas. The Yogi Adityanath dispensation said that 44 out of 75 districts in the state have been certified free of stray cattle.
In a release, the state government said that 3 per cent of the income received by the Mandi Parishad as cess would be spent on the welfare of cattle left in gaushalas registered through the Gau Seva Aayog.
Significantly, it said that at present 572 gaushalas run by self-help groups are registered in the state under the Uttar Pradesh Gaushala Act, out of which 394 are active. Around 45 registered gaushalas have been allocated Rs 20 crore.
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On the other hand, an allocation of Rs 474 crore has been made to the concerned district magistrates for feeding stray animals, the release said. The government claims that the nodal officers of the Animal Husbandry Department regularly visit all the 75 districts of the state to monitor the gaushalas and solve problems on the spot.
During a public meeting in Unnao last Sunday, PM Modi said that a new arrangement would be made after the conclusion of the ongoing assembly polls to solve the problem of stray cattle. “I will bring a new system so that people can earn from cow dung,” the prime minister had vowed.
Speaking exclusively to India Today, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made it clear that he had completely shutdown illegal slaughterhouses and more than 9 lakh stray cattle are in the shelters. He claimed that he will also save farmers' fields from cows and oxen on the loose by expanding natural farming and utilizing stray cattle for the farmers’ benefit, for which a provision has already been made in the budget.
