On Tuesday, Virender Kanwar – Rural Development and Animal Husbandry Minister of Himachal Pradesh said – “the HP government will set up Gau Vigyan Kendras in each district to make cow shelters and Gau Sadans self-reliant.”
HP Gau Seva Aayog Chairman – Ashok Sharma, Additional Chief Secretary – LAC R D Dhiman, Secretary Finance – Akshay Sood, Secretary Animal Husbandry – Ajay Sharma, other official and non-official members of Aayog were also present in the meeting.
“The state government had taken several effective steps for the protection of stray cattle through Gau Seva Aayog and smart cow shelters were being set up in each district” – Kanwar said after the 5th meeting of Gau Seva Aayog and added – “a memorandum of understanding has been signed to set up smart cow shelters in Solan and Kangra districts. These cow shelters would have the capacity to accommodate 3,000 cows per cow shelter and 20 percent of mulching cows would also be kept in these shelters. Besides efforts would be made to provide animal lifters to cow shelters in each district and to make Gau Sadans self-reliant, 10 sadans would be converted into Gau Vigyan Kendras to make these self-reliant by enhancing the productivity of milk and other cow products.”
He also stated that – “the state government was providing financial assistance to Gau Sadans and cow shelters for better operations. For better monitoring of cows, the state government was considering supervisors in these cow shelters. Presently, 15 cow shelters were being established in ten states, out of which the work of eight has been completed with an expenditure of Rs 31 crore, and shelter has been provided to 18,000 cows in the state.”
The website of HP Gau Seva Aayog has also been launched by Kanwar who stated that – “the website would provide online monitoring of various activities of the Aayog and the contributors can also make donations through this website.”
