It also says that as per the government's reports, Rs 600 crore was allocated for promotion of grazing land, but only Rs 20 crore has been utilised in the past four years
Cattle in the state have less land to sustain, Congress party said in a statement on Sunday. Quoting a recent reply by the government in the state Legislative Assembly, it said that 2,754 villages in the state have no land left for cattle grazing, up from 2,625 villages in 2015.
It also said that as per the government's reports, Rs 600 crore was allocated for promotion of grazing land, but only Rs 20 crore has been utilised in the past four years and so an inquiry should be initiated to ascertain how the money was misused.
Representatives of farmers say it is mainly the landless cattle rearers who rely on grazing lands and elimination of such land from villages means that cattle cannot survive and they have to move out of the village.
"The state government had on August 27 replied in the Legislative Assembly that until 2015, 2,625 villages in the state had no land for grazing of cattle. However, in a reply on March 20 this year, it revised the number to 2,754 villages. This means that now cattle rearers of 129 more villages are deprived of land for their cattle to graze on," said Manish Doshi, chief spokesman of Congress party in Gujarat.
Quoting the data provided by the state government, he said that the tribal district of Chhota Udepur has maximum 314 villages with no grazing land. It is followed by Dang (310 villages), Mahisagar (225 villages), Valsad (216 villages), Narmada (204 villages), Banaskantha (197 villages) and Sabakantha (182 villages).
"On one hand, the state government brings policy to encourage grazing land, but its own data shows that 129 villages have lost grazing land altogether. Moreover, there is no account of Rs 580 crore that was disbursed but not utilised. We demand that an inquiry be conducted to know how the funds were misused," said Doshi.
Jayesh Patel, president of Khedut Samaj, Gujarat said that long back, kings had earmarked grazing land for landless cattle rearers. They will be the biggest losers if grazing land is lost. "All cattle rearers do not have their own land. They rely on such grazing land. In the absence of such land, their survival will be difficult," said Patel.
FUTURE IN PERIL
Representatives of farmers say it is mainly the landless cattle rearers who rely on grazing lands and elimination of such land from villages means that cattle cannot survive and they have to move out of the village
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