A multi-crore scam linked with the Intensive Dairy Development Programme surfaced through a starred question in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Tuesday and the main Opposition Congress MLAs staged a walk out on this issue after the government’s reply that 2006 onwards, 1007 milch animals provided under this programme to the beneficiaries from the BPL category had perished in the tribal dominated Jhabua district.
The Opposition went on the offensive when the minister for animal husbandary and fisheries, Mr Ajay Vishnoi, told the House that milch cattle have died in large numbers in eleven other districts. He cited “sickness, shortage of water and fodder” as the main cause of their death.
Mr Vishnoi told the House that under IDDP, each beneficiary from the BPL category was given `72,000 as grant in aid for three milch animals (`50,000); a cattle shed (`10,000); fodder and animal feed (`10,000); and training (`2,000).
Later talking to this newspaper, Mr Vishnoi revealed that issue dates back to 2006 and said that the number of milch cattle that had died in eleven districts was a staggering 7986. The districts in question are Betul, Barwani, Khargone, Jhabua, Dhar, Chhindwara, Balaghat, Shahdol, Mandla and Seoni.
Mr Vishnoi went on to add that of the 7,986 milch cattle that have died, claims have been sought for 4195 animals. The number of claims settled so far is 1340. The minister said that he told the House that he was ready to get a probe conducted by involving legislators from Jhabua but the Opposition Congress MLAs were not ready to relent and staged a walkout. On being asked why the number of (insurance) claims settled till now was only a fraction of the total number of dead cattle, Mr Vishnoi said that there have been practical difficulties. The claims were held up in cases where the postmortem was not done. He further said milch cattle had been provided in villages where there was acute shortage of water. He ruled out the possibility of any irregularity in purchase of cattle or supply of fodder by pointing out that there were no intermediaries and the money for this purpose was going directly to the beneficiaries.