Congress government in Chhattisgarh seeks land to open cow shelters in every village

NEW DELHI: Jumping on the cow politics bandwagon, the newlyformed Congress government in Chhattisgarh has framed an elaborate plan to open cow shelters in every village and has linked the initiative with its poll promise of employment for the youth.
The Chhattisgarh government has asked gram sabhas to provide excess land under its control to build cow shelters or gothan. The government would take this land and build a shelter and a common feeding ground where the cows would be able to graze through the day.

“Chhattisgarh has long been battling with the problem of stray cattle,” chief minister Bhupesh Baghel told ET. “People leave their cattle to graze anywhere and they park themselves on the roads. This is also because the milk productivity is very low as Chhattisgarh government has never worked to improve the breed. We have drawn up an elaborate plan and would be implementing it within the next six months.”

In some places where there is paucity of land for shelters, the government would ask a cluster of 4-5 villages to have a common cow shelter. Baghel, however, denied that this is an attempt to reclaim the issue, which has been highly politicised over the last few months. “This was a poll promise. Congress won on the slogan ‘Chhattisgarh ke chaar chinhaari – Narwa Garwa Ghurwa Baari’. It means there are four symbols of Chhattisgarh – rivulets, cow or livestock, domestic dump and farming.

We had promised to work on these four fronts and we are doing just that,” the chief minister said. The government has decided to link this plan to the mega poll promise of providing employment to the youth.