Grappling with the large population of stray cattle roaming on the streets and causing accidents in the state, Haryana Government has proposed to set up “Gramin Gau Seva Kendras” to rehabilitate 100-200 cattle in a village.
The State Government has chalked out a plan to open 50 “Gramin Gau Seva Kendras” in villages of Haryana during the current financial year 2018-19.
Recently, the government had launched ‘Haryana Besahara Gauvansh Mukt Yojana’ to make the state stray cattle- free by the end of this year. The State Government has in the past failed thrice to achieve its ambitious target of making Haryana stray cattle-free.
As per government’s data, there are around 50000 stray cattle in the state.
“To rehabilitate the abandoned cattle, the State Government has planned to open 50 “Gramin Gau Seva Kendras” during current financial year in the villages of the state. These Kendras will be constructed to rehabilitate abandoned cattle in the villages and to ensure that these animals do not stray into cities,” said Bhani Ram Mangla, chairman of Haryana Gau Sewa Aayog.
He said that Rs 21 lakh is proposed to be spent on one “Gramin Gau Seva Kendra” to be established in around five acres of land. An 11-member committee will be set up to manage these cow shelters, he said.
“The State Government had last year given in-principle approval for setting up of Gramin Gau Seva Kendras by the gram panchayats on gau charan land (grazing land) for the rehabilitation of stray cattle,” he said.
About 72,000 acres of land is available for the purpose of gaucharan in the state, Bhani Ram Mangla added.
There are around 430 gaushalas and nandishalas (shelter for bovine animals) in the state with strength of more than 3.40 lakh cattle.
At present, the cow shelters in the state are facing shortage of funds and several incidents of cow deaths due to lack of basic facilities at these shelters have been reported over the past few months.
Notably, Haryana was among the first states in the country to enact the Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act in 2015, imposing a complete ban on the sale of beef in any form in the state and making cow slaughter punishable by up to 10-year imprisonment and with fine upto Rs 1 lakh.