MP government to set up 'gau cabinet' for cow protection: CM Chouhan

NEW DELHI: A day after promising a law against ‘love jihad’, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government on Wednesday announced a ‘Cow Cabinet’ comprising six departments for the welfare of cattle in the state, the construction of cow shelters and the allocation of a budget for it.

Madhya Pradesh has nearly 1.96 crore heads of cattle, of which nearly 80% are either not productive or low in productivity, state government officials said.

The former Kamal Nath government had begun a ‘Project Gaushala’ last year to build 1,000 low-cost cow shelters, as per the party’s poll promise, but his government went out of power even as the work had started in some locations.

“The Congress government kept on speaking about building cow shelters for 15 months but did not build even 15 cow shelters. The entire progress on this front has been done by the BJP government since March,” state home minister Narottam Mishra said.

Kamal Nath took on the BJP government questioning how little had been done for cows in the 15-year tenure of the Shivraj Chouhan government and said the CM had gone back on his earlier promise of creating a separate ‘Cow Ministry’.

Congress leaders said Nath’s aggressive measures for cow welfare like launching a mobile app for conservation of cows and his promise during the recent by-polls of launching a ‘Cow-Wealth Justice Scheme’ if he came to power had pressurised Chouhan to announce the step now. Chouhan said the first meeting of the ‘Cow Cabinet’ will be held in Agar Malwa on November 22, where his government had set up a big cow shelter for 10,000 cows in 2017.

Chouhan also announced a ‘Tourism Cabinet’ for MP.

Congress Questions ‘Love Jihad’ Law
Congress state legal cell head and spokesperson TP Dhanopia questioned the need for a new law against religious conversions in the state at a time when there was an existing law dating back to 1968. “There is no concept like love jihad in the law and the BJP is misleading everyone and instilling a sense of fear among the people,” Dhanopia said.

MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra clarified that the proposed law was not specific to any religion and the 1969 law would be improved upon. The state’s pro-tem speaker and RSS leader, Rameshwar Sharma, said the law should be made stricter. SC/ST women who convert to Islam or Christianity for marriage should not be extended reservation benefits in future, he said.