BHOPAL: The Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh will build 3,000 gaushalas (cowsheds) by next year to ensure that no stray cattle remain homeless by 2020.
Reviewing the progress of Project Gaushala in Bhopal on Friday, the Chief Minister Kamal Nath also directed to accelerate the construction of 1,000 cowsheds in the state and to complete them within the stipulated time limit at any cost.
Nath added that the accountability of the concerned departments should be fixed and it should also be reviewed from time to time. The Chief Minister further mentioned that there is a target to build 3000 cowsheds in the state during the next year. In this regard, complete planning, selection of construction sites and all the procedures should be completed by December 2019.
The meeting also saw the Project Gaushala – a campaign aimed at protecting abandoned cows – being renamed as Mukyamantri Gauseva Yojana.
Under the project 1000 gaushalas (cowsheds) are targeted across the state by next month.
Nath also directed that the problems being faced by the common man due to the abandoned cows and stray animals should be resolved on priority. He said that "problems in the construction of Gaushalas should be brought to his notice so that they could be addressed immediately. Dearth of funds shouldn’t hamper the construction of cowsheds."
Importantly, two months back, the CM had directed to chalk out a detailed action plan for preventing cow-related road accidents, which prove fatal and injurious to both cows and humans.
The Chief Minister’s concern about cow-related road accidents, particularly during monsoon, didn’t seem to be unfounded, as statistics present with the state police reveal that the state police received on an average eight phone calls daily about cow-related accidents over last three years.
The data generated by the Dial 100 Emergency Response Service of Madhya Pradesh Police reveals that during last 40 months (April 2016-July 2019), it received 9317 calls from people about cow-related road accidents across the state.
The frequency of such phone calls increased particularly during the three monsoon months, July, August and September. A total 1489 calls were received in the monsoon months in 2016, 1232 calls in 2017, 1256 in 2018 and 284 calls were received by the Dial 100 service in July 2019 only.
While the emergency response service received on an average eight calls daily pertaining to cow-related road accidents in last 40 months, the daily frequency of such calls in the monsoon months was much higher, including 16 calls daily in 2016, 13 calls in 2017 and 14 calls in 2018. In July 2019, Dial 100 received nine such calls daily.
The statistics further show that Dial 100 service 917 such calls in first seven months of 2019, out of which maximum 66 calls pertained to state capital Bhopal, 55 from Morena district, 42 from Gwalior district and 41 each from Sagar and Vidisha districts.