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MP CM announces intention to impose cow cess; develop cow research centre

Cess will be applicable to liquor, vehicles, marriage gardens, hotels and more

cow-cess The state government is likely to impose an additional cess of around 0.25 per cent | via Twitter

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced the intention to levy a ‘cow cess’ for protection and conservation of cows and its progeny in Madhya Pradesh.

His announcement came at a public meeting held at Cow Sanctuary in Salaria of Agar Malwa where Chouhan held a discussion with experts on cow protection and conservation. He said a law will be promulgated for proper management of the cow shelters.

Earlier, the first meeting of the newly constituted cow-cabinet—a committee of ministers of six related departments—was held in Bhopal.

At the public meeting in Agar, the chief minister asked the people whether they supported cow protection, and upon getting an affirmative response, he said the government alone cannot do this work and the support of the community was necessary. “In earlier days, people set aside the first bite of food (go-grass) for the cows, but this tradition is disappearing. So, rather than asking people to set aside the go-grass, we are thinking of collecting money for cow protection by imposing a small tax on people,” the CM said.

The state government is likely to impose an additional cess of around 0.25 per cent on different products and services including liquor, vehicles, marriage gardens and hotels as the cow cess, sources said.

Meanwhile, during his address, the chief minister made several other announcements, including setting up of a research centre at Agar Malwa on products made of cow dung and urine as well as milk.

He also said cow milk rather than eggs will be distributed to the severely malnourished children in anganwadis (government pre-school child care centres), cow dung cakes and wood will be used for last rites in all crematoriums and ‘go-phenyl’ (insecticide made of cow urine) will be used for cleaning in government offices. He also urged people to use the cow dung cakes and wood fir Holika dahan (traditional bonfire lit during Holi festival).

The CM announced that 2,000 more cow shelters will be set up in the state and run with the help of community and non-government organisations. Currently there are about 1,500 cow shelters in the state where 1.8 lakh cows are kept.

Interestingly, the Kamal Nath government had allotted Rs 20 per cow for the cow shelters in its 2019-20 budget, with a provision of Rs 132 crore, but in the 2020-21, the BJP government drastically cut it to Rs 11 crore.

Chouhan announced that grassland will be developed on vacant forest land to provide for fodder for the cows in shelters, panchayats will be given funds of the state finance commission for the management of shelters and they will also be able to use the funds under Panch-Parmeshwar scheme for making arrangements of water and electricity for the shelters.

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