Five cow shelters shut down due to fund crunch

BAREILLY Five out of the nine ‘gaushalas’ (cow shelters) built in Mirganj panchayat in Bareilly district have closed down due to lack of fodder, paucity of funds

BAREILLY Five out of the nine ‘gaushalas’ (cow shelters) built in Mirganj panchayat in Bareilly district have closed down due to lack of fodder, paucity of funds and non-payment of honorarium to the staff hired for their upkeep.

HT Image

“We have decided to give away more than three dozen livestock in these cow shelters to individuals and self-help groups, who have volunteered to take care of them,” said block development officer Sanjiv Singh.

The state government had come up with a scheme to keep stray and unattended cattle in such shelters with the help of the animal husbandry department. But due to mismanagement, lack of proper civic amenities due to fund crunch, a large number of cattle deaths were reported from ‘gaushalas’.

The Yogi Adityanath government had suspended eight officers on July 14, last year in Ayodhya and Mirzapur districts, after cows were found dead at state-run shelters.

“We have initiated the process of shifting the livestock from these sheds to another cowshed being built in Rafiabad,” said the BDO, adding that plans were also afoot to allocate the animals to animal husbandry and self-help groups after the proposal was approved by the chief development officer.

Built at a cost of Rs 4.50 lakh, these five cow shelters, which have been shut down were located in Saijana, Kapoorpur and Guldiya villages. “I have been taking care of the animals for the past six months but have not been paid a single penny so far by the government,” said Dodram, who was working with the ‘gaushala’ at Churai Dalpatpur.

Under the stray cattle adoption the scheme, the state government gives Rs 30 daily or a monthly grant of Rs 900 for fodder per animal, if anyone adopts cattle from a cow shelter and does not use them for commercial purpose,” said chief veterinary officer Dr Lalit Kumar.

He said there were around four lakh stray cattle living in 4,000 temporary cow shelters set up in rural and urban areas all over the state, of which around 140 cow shelters were in Bareilly zone alone.

Kumar said they were in the process of streamlining things and closing down cow shelters, which did not have proper facilities for animals and shifting them to other sheds to ensure better management and upkeep.