Hyderabad: The state government has relaxed norms to purchase sheep after it could distribute only 4 lakh sheep to Yadav/ Kuruma families as part of encouraging caste based professions in state to revive rural economy.
The government has set itself a target to distribute 42 lakh sheep.
The earlier norms stipulated that sheep aged 12-18 months should be purchased for distribution. With officials finding it difficult to purchase such a huge number of sheep in this age group, it was relaxed to 9-24 months.
Animal husbandry minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav reviewed the progress of sheep distribution with officials on Saturday.
“Officials toured several states for the past five months to purchase sheep and found that it was difficult to get lakhs of sheep in the age group of 12-18 months and wanted the rules to be relaxed. The issue was taken to the notice of CM who was convinced with the argument made by officials. He directed us to relax the norms for the successful implementation of scheme,” Mr Yadav said.
The original plan was to distribute 84 lakh sheep in two years but with over 7 lakh beneficiaries enrolling for the scheme, the government is facing a situation where it has to purchase an additional 50 lakh sheep to cover all of them. The government earmarked Rs 5,000 crore to purchase sheep.
The government needs to purchase over 1.30 crore sheep now to cover all beneficiaries.
Each beneficiary will get 20 female and a male sheep costing nearly Rs 1.30 lakh. The government will bear nearly Rs 1 lakh and beneficiary has to bear Rs 30,000.
