After slaughter ban, Karnataka govt mulls more cash for cattle sheds

The government is planning to put more money into the hands of farmers to construct cattle sheds.

This is seen as a move to assuage their anger over the new anti-cow slaughter law. Authorities, however, deny any link between the two.

Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), farmers are given cash benefits to construct cattle sheds, soak pits, farm ponds as well as to grow horticulture crops, undertake sericulture among other farming activities.

To build a cattle shed, SC/ST farmers get Rs 43,500 and those from other communities get Rs 19,625. The government is now planning to hike the amount for non-SC/ST farmers.

This comes at a time when the government has amended the Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Act, which imposes a blanket prohibition on the slaughter of cows and allows only buffaloes above 13 years of age to be butchered.

It is feared that this will burden farmers as they will have to take care of cattle, especially cows, even after they become barren.

While the government is mum on providing financial support in taking care of cattle after they become barren, it has asked farmers to leave the animals at any of the 188 non-government gaushalas across the state. The government is also mulling over building its own gaushalas.

Authorities are currently working out an estimation on hiking the cash benefit for non-SC/ST farmers to build cattle sheds. Apparently, there was ‘heartburn’ that the cash benefit difference between SC/ST farmers and non-SC/ST farmers was huge.

“Cattle sheds will help improve and increase the productivity of livestock,” L K Atheeq, principal secretary to the department of rural development and panchayat raj, said.

This year, the RDPR department took up the Raitha Kriya Yojane campaign under which a ‘demand box’ was placed to understand the requirement of farmers. “Any farmer wanting individual benefit under NREGA could make an application. We got thousands of applications and there’s a lot of demand for cattle sheds,” Atheeq pointed out.

In June 2020, the government decided to hike the total quantum of individual benefits under NREGA to Rs 2.5 lakh. That means, a farmer can claim cash benefits up to Rs 2.5 lakh in a year.

NREGA dues

The Centre is yet to give Karnataka Rs 560 crore towards material costs and wage payments under NREGA, according to government data. This includes Rs 112.44 crore in 2018-19, Rs 162.02 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 285.92 crore in 2020-21.

In the current fiscal, the government has achieved 12.73 crore person days against the target of 14.10 crore.