Lopsided stipulations in the State’s Sheep Distribution Scheme (SDS) has taught the designers of the scheme some lessons. The key lacuna used to be beneficiaries not being allowed to choose their animals and composite sheep priced as a unit, which affected the efficacy of the scheme on ground.
The ₹800-crore Buffalo Distribution Scheme (BDS), to strengthen the caste-based vocation and revive dairy occupations, has all those lacunae removed based on their experience.
“We were not allowed to choose our sheep, some are aged and others lambs. Their quality doesn’t match the price. Whether officers, traders or transporters, they were there only to exploit,” beneficiaries summarise the problem. At least one of those problems was experienced by all, the disappointed beneficiaries say.
“A bank on the move for Yadava and Kuruma communities”, as Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao described the SDS, it only turned out to be their ‘ATM’ as those upset with the lot took to ‘sheep recycling’ - selling off subsidy sheep to traders in Andhra Pradesh, from where they were bought again, and the cycle repeated.
Numerous confiscations by the police in Nalgonda and other border districts, with veterinary staff unable to locate grounded units, are proof for the failure.
So far 21,450 sheep units have been grounded in 408 villages in Nalgonda, at a cost of ₹ 268 crore.
The BDS, however, will not be like the SDS, say leaders and implementing agencies.
“What happened with sheep will not happen with buffaloes, there is absolutely no scope. Even the officers cannot manipulate,” Nalgonda MP and Rythu Samanvaya Samithi Chairman Gutha Sukender Reddy assured dairy farmers at a recent meeting here. “You are free to buy any buffalo you want, from anywhere in the country. Just observe some guidelines,” he said.
While a sheep unit beneficiary contributed 25% of cost (out of total cost of ₹1.25 lakh) to purchase a unit containing 20 sheep and a ram, a buffalo beneficiary, if belonging to SC/ST category will pay ₹20,000 for 75% subsidy and others ₹40, 000 for the subsidy of 50%. Each buffalo’s price is fixed at ₹80,000. In addition, they would be allowed ₹5000 for transportation of the milch animal, and is also covered by insurance.
Of the 2.13 lakh beneficiaries, Karimnagar with 21,000 tops the State and Yadadri is in the second spot with 20,000 and Nalgonda with 14,,632 at third position.