After Cow Dung, Chhattisgarh Government to Buy Bovine Urine

The Congress government in the State has approved the purchase of cow urine and extended its Godhan Nyay Yojana, in what appears to be a role reversal regarding cow politics in Chhattisgarh.

"We'll start the Godhan Nyay Yojana pilot scheme, a part of the Narva Garva Ghurva Bari effort, under which we've already begun purchasing cow manure and turning it into compost. We will now buy cattle urine as well for $4 per liter.

On July 28, the auspicious day of Hareli (a farmer's festival), the initiative will be inaugurated in two places in each district,” according to Pradeep Sharma, planning and policy adviser to chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, who made the announcement on Friday.

The Narva Garva Ghurva Bari plan, according to the government, is an effort to support and strengthen rural economies. The name was formed from four Chhattisgarhi words: narva, which means rivulet, garva, which means animal, particularly cattle, ghurva, which means dung, and bari, which means village garden.

To shelter domestic and stray cattle, "gauthans" or cow sheds are constructed in each hamlet as part of the Godhan Nyay Yojana.

The aim, according to the government, is to relieve farmers from the issue of cattle grazing in the fields while also producing value-added goods from cow manure, like vermicompost, super compost, and super compost. Sharma stated that cow urine would be used to create pesticides.

Politically, cow-related programs are considered an effort by the Congress administration to offset the Bharatiya Janata Party's political advantage in the area of cow protection. Following its success in the State, Sharma claimed that some other States had also adopted comparable systems.

BJP alleges corruption

While visiting the State, Union Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Giriraj Singh attacked the Narva Garva Ghurva Bari scheme. The senior BJP leader said that widespread looting and corruption were taking place in the plan while speaking to a crowd in the industrial town of Korba on Friday.

“Ninety percent of the funding for the scheme's implementation has been injected through my department. If stray cattle continue to wander the area, Baghel should be questioned about where the 23,000 "gauthans" are.

Baghel said that he would give you ‘gauthans’ but are there any in this village?  All he has are such tempting slogans for the common people while he himself takes a cut from coal mines to fill his own pockets and those of his political bosses in Delhi,” alleged Singh.

Earlier, former State Home Minister and Rampur MLA Nankiram Kanwar reportedly brought up the concern of Panchayats spending the money allotted by the 15th Finance Commission on the "gauthansg" in Singh's presence during a review meeting on the status of the implementation of the Central government schemes with district panchayat representatives in Korba.

The Minister allegedly denied a district panchayat member who refuted the claim and accused the panchayats of behaving unilaterally by diverting money for the Godhan Nyay Yojana at the cost of other development projects.