Fodder camps set up in drought-hit Beed district are drawing the attention of all once again, and for all the wrong reasons.
The unusually high number of cattle admitted in these fodder camps has prompted the State administration to issue orders to conduct proper inquiries before releasing funds to organisers of these fodder camps.
Of the 1,354 fodder camps across the State, Beed has the highest at 601. State government records show that of the 9,06,665 cattle in these fodder camps, Beed alone accounts for nearly 49% with 4,21,448 cattle.
In contrast, neighbouring Latur district has no fodder camp while adjacent Parbhani does not have a single cattle in its camps. In Osmanabad, only 60,414 animals have been admitted.
Ahmednagar district ranks second with 3,09,170 housed in 493 camps.
According to sources, the majority of fodder camps in Beed are located in Ashti, Gevrai and Beed tehsils which did not receive much rainfall and are adjacent to Ahmednagar district. “Yes, we have come across this unusually large number of cattle in Beed’s fodder camps. There are 18 fodder camps which are currently under investigation. No money has yet been released to the owners of any of the camps. It will be released only after thorough inquiry to establish whether the number of animals was correct,” said an officer, closely working on the issue.
The Beed district administration had demanded ₹125 crore for the maintenance of fodder camps of which ₹103 crore have been received and ₹93 crore have been diverted at tehsil level but yet to be released. On Wednesday, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Chandrakant Patil, after a meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee, had announced an increase in the amount for big cattle from ₹90 to ₹100 and from ₹45 to ₹50 for small animals.
Beed has a history of fodder camp scams. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had alleged a scam under the previous Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government in 2012 and 2014.
In an attempt to check irregularities, the government had asked fodder camp owners to attach geotag on the cattle to ascertain whether the animal was actually in the fodder camp.
Kalidas Aapet of Shetkari Sanghtana from Beed said the fodder camps were grazing grounds for politicians to mint money. “Be it Guardian Minister Pankaja Munde or Opposition leader Dhananjay Munde, all these camps are running under political patronage,” he said.