The Chhattisgarh government is planning to procure cattle urine at ₹4 per litre from farmers and cattle owners, officials said on Friday.
Officials said that a pilot project of the scheme will start in the next couple weeks in a few northern districts of the state. The state government is already procuring cow dung from breeders and farmers in a push to make cattle rearing economically profitable.
In February 2022, the state government had decided to procure cattle urine in the same manner as cow dung.
Subsequently, a committee was formed to decide the method of procurement and research on the whole scheme.
“A proposal has been made by the committee and it will be put before the Chief Minister soon. The committee has decided to procure cattle urine at the rate of ₹4 per litre and approval from the CM will be taken,” said Pradeep Sharma, adviser to chief minister Bhupesh Baghel.
He said cattle urine will be procured through Gram Gauthan Samiti and fortnightly payments will be given to cattle owners.
“The gauthans which will demand first will be given priority for the procurement scheme,” said Sharma.
The government is planning to launch the scheme on occasion of the local festival Hereli on July 28, another government official said on condition of anonymity.
On June 25, 2020, Baghel launched ‘Gaudhan Nyay Yojana’ claiming that there has been a tradition of open grazing in the state of Chhattisgarh, which results in loss of crops.
The government said that the stray cattle in cities cause road accidents, loss of life and property and the cows are abandoned after they stop giving milk and hence to make cow rearing a profitable business, they decided to procure cow dung from farmers and cattle owners.
Nearly two years later, after launching a scheme for procuring cow dung, the government claimed that they had procured huge amounts of cow dung to make vermicompost and now cow urine will be procured for organic pesticides and fungicides.
“Organic pesticides are already made at many places in gauthans in the state. Now the government plans to institutionalize it. The procurement will be made only for agricultural use not for human consumption,” Sharma said.
Meanwhile, political commentators believe the Chhattisgarh government is working like the BJP government is working at the Centre.
“The BJP government in the Centre, in order to shift focus from its report card on real issues, targets Congress and opposition parties on religious and identity issues. In Chhattisgarh, many of their such planks have been usurped by the Congress government without any fear of backlash from minority as the state has less than two percent Muslim population,” said Sudeip Shrivastva, political observer based in Chhattisgarh.
The outcome of 2023 state elections will reflect the political fallout of this strategy as to which side it benefited more, Shrivastava added.
BJP believes this move is just to woo Hindu voters but people know that all these schemes exist only on paper.
“By these stunts, they will not able to woo the Hindu voters as they have understood that Congress government has done nothing for the common man,” said Sacchinand Upasane, senior BJP leader and spokesperson.
In November 2021, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said the state government is working on the idea of purchasing the cow dung for the purpose of making fertilisers and other products out of it.
“For BJP, Hindu community is merely a vote bank but for us, cattle and their owners are important because they are part of our culture. The BJP can only mock us but never understand our schemes which are for the common man,” said Congress spokesperson RP Singh.