In what appears to be a role reversal over cow politics in Chhattisgarh, the Congress government in the State has approved the procurement of bovine urine, and extend its Godhan Nyay Yojana.
“We will launch the pilot of the scheme under the Godhan Nyay Yojana, a part of Narva Garva Ghurva Bari initiative, under which we have already been buying cow dung and converting it into compost. We will now also buy cattle urine at ₹4 per litre. The scheme has been approved by the Cabinet and will be launched in two places in each district on July 28, the auspicious day of Hareli [a farmer’s festival],” Pradeep Sharma, planning and policy adviser to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, said on Friday.
The government claims that the Narva Garva Ghurva Bari scheme is an attempt to strengthen the rural economy and make it more self-sustainable. The name has been derived from four Chhattisgarhi words: narva means a rivulet, garva is a term to denote animals, mainly cattle, ghurva refers to manure, and bari is a term for village gardens where people grow vegetables.
Under the Godhan Nyay Yojana, ‘gauthans’ or cow sheds are built in each village to house domestic and stray cattle. The idea, the government says, is to relieve farmers from the problem of cattle grazing in the fields and at the same time make value-added products such as vermi compost, super compost and super compost from the cow dung. The cow urine, added Mr. Sharma, will be used to make pesticides.
Politically, cow-related schemes are also seen as the Congress government’s attempt to blunt the Bharatiya Janata Party’s advantage it comes to cow protection. Mr. Sharma claimed that some other States had also adopted similar schemes following its success in the State.
BJP alleges corruption
Meanwhile, the Narva Garva Ghurva Bari scheme has come under attack from Union Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Giriraj Singh, who is on a visit to the State. Addressing a gathering in the industrial district of Korba on Friday, the senior BJP leader charged that rampant looting and corruption was going on in the scheme.
“Ninety per cent of the money that goes into the implementation of the scheme has been pumped in through my department. Mr. Baghel should be asked where are the 23,000 ‘gauthans’ if stray cattle continue to roam around. Mr. Baghel said that he would give you ‘gauthans’ but are there any in this village? All he has are such tempting slogans for the common people while he himself takes a cut from coal mines to fill his own pockets and those of his political bosses in Delhi,” alleged Mr. Singh.
Earlier, during a review meeting on the status of implementation of the Central government programmes with district panchayat representatives in Korba, former State Home Minister and Rampur MLA Nankiram Kanwar reportedly raised the issue of Panchayats spending the amount provided by the 15th Finance Commission on the ‘gauthansg in Mr. Singh’s presence. When a district panchayat member denied the allegation, the Minister is said to have rebuffed her and accused the panchayats of arbitrariness in diverting funds for the Godhan Nyay Yojana at the cost of other development works.
Responding to the allegations, State unit Congress spokesperson Dhananjay Singh said the Narva Garva Ghurva Bari scheme was a key element of the new Chhattisgarh model that had drawn praise from all quarters and Mr. Singh should have done some research before making a comment. “These allegations are baseless and fabricated. Mr. Singh, or all other Union ministers know they have nothing to show for in the past eight years and their Gujarat model has failed completely,” said Mr. Dhananjay Singh.
