Milked for votes, cows survive on dole in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Gaushalas in the capital, which are funded by the state government and the municipal corporations, continue to be plagued by overcrowding and a lack of funds.

Rajender Singh Shekhawat, chief manager of Bawana’s Shree Krishna Gaushala, says it hasn’t received a paisa from the North Delhi Municipal Corporation for over two-and-a-half years while Delhi government owes it Rs 5 crore, arrears since February 2018.



“The dues from the corporation has touched Rs 12 crore. We are utilising donation funds or taking money from trustees to run the cow shelter. We have also had to take a loan of Rs 3 crore to ensure the cows are fed adequately,” said Shekhawat.

According to him, the amount per day of Rs 40 per cow too falls quite short of what’s needed with the cost per cow crossing Rs 100. For food alone, the cost can escalate to around Rs 60 per cow, he claimed. Each cow is fed up to 15 kg of green fodder, 4-5 kg of dry fodder and even seasonal vegetables which are mixed with the feed. TOI couldn’t independently verify this claim.

Shekhawat said earlier this week, they asked chief minister Arvind Kejriwal — who had come visiting — for more land. “We are functioning at full capacity now, and if we get additional land, we can take in more cows. Two of Delhi’s five gaushalas have stopped taking in more cows and this puts more burden on us,” he said.

High mortality is the other problem they grapple with. The veterinary officer at the gaushala, Dr J P Singh, told TOI that 10-12 deaths occur on an average daily. “We have extracted up to 70 kg of polythene from some cows. Most come to us badly injured due to accidents while some may problems over time due to high consumption of polythene bags, nails and other harmful items,” he said.

A few kilometres further up north, on the Delhi-Haryana border, is the Gopal Gosadan, Harewali. While the gaushala has a capacity of around 3,200 cows, it has over 4,000 at present in its 15-acre area. “We need more space to adequately house them. If they get crammed in an area, they may injure themselves while fighting and may even have trouble breathing,” said manager Rashtra Pal.

Pal, too, said they had not received any money for over a year now and were functioning on funds mobilised through donations, particularly from nearby villages. “The cost per cow can go up to Rs 160-200. The amount of Rs 40 is not enough as we spend close to Rs 65 on food alone. Additional expenses like staff salaries and medical aid can take this to over Rs 100. Our duty is to serve and we are doing that but it becomes difficult when you have to generate funds,” he said.

Out of the five state-funded gaushalas in Delhi — located in Rewla Khanpur, Ghummanhera, Surhera in Najafgarh besides the ones in Harewali and Bawana — the one at Ghummanhera has been shut down due to a high number of deaths while the gaushala at Rewla Khanpur is not taking any more cows at present.

Government sources said funds for these gaushalas will be despatched soon with the proposal for payment pending with the finance department. The government gives a grant-in aid to the gaushalas in two installments in a year. “The payments are made after the gaushalas submit utilisation certificates of the funds given to them earlier. After the receipt of the utilisation certificates, an audit is carried out to check whether the funds have been properly utilised or not. The delay might have been due to that process,” said the sources. The AAP government had increased the grant-in-aid to the gaushalas from Rs 5 to Rs 20 per cow, it was pointed out.

However, the mayor of north corporation, Adesh Gupta — in whose area the two gaushalas TOI visited are located — didn’t hold out any such hope. Gupta said they have been facing an acute financial crisis in the past few years and have at times been unable to pay salaries. “We do not have any funds and the Delhi government has not provided us money for this. It’s the government which should look into the matter of feeding cows,” he said.