Over 15 lakh cows in Jharkhand to get health cards soon
at keeping record of their health under the Centre’s ‘Pashudhan Sanjeevani Scheme’, over 15 lakh cows in Jharkhand will soon get health cards, officials said.
Jharkhand would be the first state in the country to launch the scheme to promote per animal productivity of cattle and buffaloes, said Govind Prasad, chief executive officer, Jharkhand State Implement Agency for Cattle and Buffalo, a wing of the government of India.
In Jharkhand, female bovine population is around 48 lakh, of which 41.94 lakh are cows.
However, only 18 lakh milch bovines, including 15 lakh cows, will be provided the health cards in the first phase, which is expected to begin next month.
The central government has already granted ₹1.57 crore for the project, which also includes tagging cattle with Aadhaar-like 12-digit unique identification (UID) number. The state government will also provide about ₹1.04 crore for the scheme.
Earlier, Jharkhand pioneered UID tagging of cattle under Centre’s INAPH (information network for animal productivity and health) programme. The state had already tagged over 70,000 cows with UID numbers to prevent illegal transportation of cattle, improve their milk yield and monitor their health, officials claimed.
INAPH’s Jharkhand nodal in-charge KK Tiwary said the health check-up programme along with UID tagging would be started next month. Over 500 veterinary doctors would be engaged for the drive, he said. “Once the check up is done, Nakul Swasthya Patra (health card) will be issued for the respective cattle,” Tiwary said, adding, “We have received the central fund and have written to the state government to provide its share so that the programme could be completed in time.”
Graduates from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) colleges or those who have a Master of Computer Applications (MCA) degree should be recruited as cyber crime investigators, India’s top policy-making body Niti Aayog suggested as part of measures to overhaul India’s police.
The “Building Smart Police: Background into the needed Police Reforms” report called for a new approach to “specialised crimes”, suggesting recruitment of people with expertise in roles that typical constables or sub-inspectors cannot handle.
It calls for legislative and judicial changes that will help police across the country streamline their operations, focussing on core functions to maintain law and order.
India’s police are long due for sweeping reforms that can help them tackle growing work pressure and crippling staff shortage, often blamed for rising crime.
The recruitment of techies as cyber crime investigators is among ways the new approach could work.
IIT or MCA graduates can be hired as sub-inspectors or inspectors in state crime investigation departments to better tackle the “highly complex nature” of such cases, the report said. “To prevent detection, they should work in plain clothes”.
IITs are India’s marquee engineering colleges, famous for their rigorous entrance procedure and lofty pay packages for graduates.
Similar to cyber crime, social crimes can be tackled by people recruited from backgrounds such as social sciences or social work. “Social crimes like offences related to beggary, prostitution, crimes against women, domestic violence, dowry offences, etc cannot be handled by the traditional daroga. Experts suggest that it needs to be handled by a separate wing with people like students who have graduated in Social Science/Social Work,” the report reads. Excise, forest, transport and food departments should set up their own enforcement wings in order to free the state police, who normally help such officials.
“5th Report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission further suggests that functions like serving court summons, antecedents and addresses verification for passport applications or job verifications etc can be outsourced to private agents or government departments. These measures will help in reducing the workload of the police,” the report adds.
The Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) is a central government committee that gives recommendations for reviewing the public administration system. The Second ARC was set up in 2005.