Mininster of animal husbandry Giriraj Singh addresses the seminar in Patna on Saturday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, Jan. 29: The state government has decided to hold elections for the posts of secretary of cowsheds.

Animal husbandry minister Giriraj Singh today announced that there would be elections for the post of secretaries of gaushalas across the state this year. Singh also requested the owners of cowsheds to pass on their land in the name of the governor so that they can be developed in a better way.

The animal husbandry minister was addressing a seminar at Deep Narayan Singh Regional Cooperative Management Institute.

The minister inaugurated the seminar on “Development of cowsheds in Bihar and Conservation of Indigenous Cows”.

Singh stressed on having indoor hospitals at every cowshed of the state. There are 86 cowsheds across the state.

Singh said: “The veterinary doctors should visit each cowshed once every 15 days. Whatever medicines are required would be provided by the state government.” He said: “All the cowsheds should be provided with Biogas plant.”

Secretaries of various cowsheds and veterinary doctors of the state attended the seminar. Even they came up with several suggestions for the development of the cowsheds across the state.

S.K. Negi, the principal secretary of the department of animal husbandry and fisheries, said: “All suggestions would be taken into consideration. All of you submit a project related to the same and the government would see about their implementations.”

The most common of the suggestions of the participants was that the veterinary doctors should visit the cowsheds on a regular basis. Several participants also urged the state government to provide the cowsheds with fodder too. “Cowsheds should be given insurance facility by the state government,” a participant said. Several participants also suggested the state government to come up with ways so that the income of the cowsheds can go up. For instance, they should get the subsidy to have a vermicompost unit in every cowshed.

The director of Bihar Agricultural Management and Extension Training Institute, R.K. Sohane, said: “The state government is going to provide the owners of the cowsheds a subsidy of Rs 25 lakh for every 3000 metric ton project. The owners would have to submit a project to the department of agriculture.”