0 Comment(s) *
* The moderation of comments is automated and not cleared manually by indianexpress.com.
Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel (Express/File)Expanding the ambit of its Godhan Nyay Yojana, the Chhattisgarh government on Thursday started buying gau mutra (cow urine) from its gothans (cow shelters). Procuring cow urine at Rs 4 per litre, the state government plans to use it to make Brahmastra, a pesticide, and Jeevamrit, a fertiliser.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel inaugurated the programme in Patan’s Karsa village on Thursday, during the Hareli celebrations. An agricultural festival in Chhattisgarh, Hareli is one of the three regional festivals the Baghel government celebrates.
The Godhan Nyay Yojana is a flagship scheme of the Congress government, launched in 2020. The government began procuring cow dung at Rs 2 per kg to make organic fertiliser from it. To set up a mechanised system, Gothan Samitis were created to coordinate with local self-help groups.
These Gothan Samitis have now been empowered to procure the cow urine and get it converted to Brahmastra or Jeevamrit. The government has issued the prescribed recipes for both, the fertiliser and the pesticide. To be made and used locally, the shelf life of the fertiliser is only 7 days, as prescribed by the government-issued pamphlet.
Subscriber Only Stories
Earlier this year in February, chief minister Baghel had asked Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain to submit an action plan regarding the scientific usage of cow urine.
Baghel, who defied a minority no-confidence motion in the Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday evening, has spoken extensively about the Godhan Yojana scheme in Assam and UP elections. In fact, one of the selling points for the scheme in all government releases is that several other states seem to have followed suit.
The Godhan Nyay Yojana, which followed the Rajiv Gandhi Nyay Yojana, followed a simple principle: strengthening rural economy by making cash available directly to the villages. Baghel has taken the principle one step further: by making rural areas producers of items that are then sold in the cities around them.
While more than 76 lakh quintals of cow dung have been procured in the past two years, women self-help groups have produced only 22 lakh quintals of organic manure so far. The government paid Rs 153 crore to the Gothan Samitis for dung procurement. The self-help groups also earned Rs 74 crore in the past two years from doing extra activities, like making cow dung items, in the gothans.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
