Blanket for cows may help get arms licence

BHOPAL/GWALIOR: A person who donates at least 10 blankets for cows in winter will get preference in getting an arms licence in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior, according to an order by the district administration.

“An applicant for an arms licence will get preference in the district administration’s decision on his application...if he donates 10 blankets for cows. I have taken the decision in view of certain gaushalas (cow shelters) overcrowded with cows and, thus, requiring more resources to sustain,” district collector Anurag Chaudhary has said.

“People in Gwalior have a craze for arms. They need it for self-defence also. Hence, once they donate blankets to get preference in getting arms licenses, we will have more blankets for cows for shelters. Earlier, our decision to ask such applicants to plant saplings yielded a good result and as many as 17,000 saplings were planted for arms licence seekers,” he said.

The collector also instructed officials to organise a meeting of public representatives, representatives of social organisations, those working in the field of cow protection and others to have a discussion on the maintenance of gaushalas and how to protect cows during the winter season.

As many as 17 stray cows died of starvation in Gwalior district in October after they were herded and locked inside a room of a government school at Samnadan village by local residents because of the cattle were disrupting traffic on the highway.

Chief minister Kamal Nath ordered an inquiry after the incident as opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that the incident proved the hollowness of the claim by the Congressled government’s claim that it was committed to the protection of cows.

According to the animal husbandry department, there are about 700,000 stray cattle in the state.

The Congress in its manifesto in the run-up to the state assembly elections held in November last year promised to set up one gaushala at every panchayat.

The state government planned to create as many as 1000 gaushalas across the state in the first phase.