Fearing strong backlash from various political and social outfits, Haryana Government has put on hold, its ambitious project of providing ‘special identification tags’ to cows, for the time being.
The State Government is yet to chalk out a plan to introduce ‘special identification tags’ with unique identification numbers for State cows and the project which was announced to begin in few blocks of the State during this month, is not likely to take off in next few months.
Official sources said the State Animal Husbandry Department is yet to initiate the ground work for the project, which is likely to cost the State exchequer in lakhs of rupees, the amount that can be well utilised in other development projects in the State.
The BJP-led State Government had last month announced to give each cow in the State, a 12-digit unique identification number and an ID card as tags with an aim to establish their identity and to provide benefits under various Government schemes.
Following this, people from different walks of life had questioned the Government’s decision for spending funds for such projects.
The State Government had last month imposed a complete ban on the sale of beef in any form in the State and had also made cow slaughter punishable by up to 10-year imprisonment following the passage of Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Bill 2015, for protection and upkeep of cows.
At that time also, the BJP-led Government’s move had attracted sharp criticism from the Congress which accused the ruling party of pursuing the agenda of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of “Hindutva”.
later, the State Government’s decision to introduce ‘special identification tags’ for State cows, was criticised by many, particularly on the social networking websites with jokes going around anticipating cow security to be better than women security in Haryana.
Notably, the National Commission for Women (NCW) had received 1,720 complaints, the third highest number of cases of crime against women from Haryana during the year 2014-15. In the wake of backlash over the UID project for cows, the State Government is now treading cautiously to take up this project during the current financial year.
Official sources said that the project is not even in the planning stage yet and the state Animal Husbandry Department is at present focusing on initiatives related to promotion of indigenous cows and enhancing per capita availability of milk in the state. If initiated in the coming time, it would take nearly three years to complete this project in Haryana. As per the data with the state Animal Husbandry Department, there are around 18.98 lakh cows and 61.5 lakh buffaloes in the state.
When contacted, Dr GS Jakhar, Director General, Haryana Animal Husbandry & Dairying said that the project is not cancelled and would likely be taken up by the State Government during the current financial year.
He said, “We are yet to chalk out a plan to introduce ‘special identification tags’ with unique identification numbers for state cows. The project is a part of various initiatives taken under government schemes for conservation and promotion of indigenous cows and increase milk productivity in the state and the Department is working on it.”