Haryana: Cow protection budget Rs 425 crore, says Vipul Goel

State Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Vipul Goel has said the government is committed to protecting cows. After 2014, the state government had increased the budget for cow protection. He was responding to a calling attention motion during the budget session here today.

The minister said before the government was formed in 2014, the budget for cow protection was Rs 2 crore, which the government had now increased to Rs 425 crore. "Not only this, our government has increased the budget for fodder, which was Rs 1.85 crore before 2014. This year, Rs 163 crore has been provided to cow shelters for fodder so far," he said.

The government had built two cow sanctuaries with a capacity of 5,000 at Nain village (Panipat district) and Dhandhoor village (Hisar district) at a cost of Rs 8 crore. About 6,000 destitute animals had been rehabilitated in these sanctuaries. The Gau Seva Aayog had a provision for Rs 10 crore for setting up sanctuaries.

He said to encourage gaushalas for the rehabilitation of animals, the government had issued a notification and constituted the Special Gau Conservation Task Force for each district and State Level Special Gau Conservation Task Force Committee. Further, veterinary hospitals (17 Government Veterinary Hospitals and 12 Government Veterinary Dispensaries) had been opened at gaushalas.

Many other members of the Vidhan Sabha gave their suggestions for the protection of cows as well as to get rid of the problem of stray dogs and monkeys, on which Goel assured to take positive steps.