Vidarbha:
Under the Prime Minister's package, cows were to be distributed among farmers in Vidarbha in rural Maharashtra. It was meant to be a government scheme that would help farmers. However, the scheme has gone wrong due to faulty implementation.
Punjaram Geddam, a Vidarbha farmer, received the hybrid jersey cow through the Prime Minister's package four years ago. The cow died in a matter of months.
''These cows had to be kept in sheds with air coolers. They needed high-grade cattle feed. How can poor farmers like us afford an air-cooler? A local breed would have survived better,'' Punjaram Gedam says.
The Comptroller and Auditor General's Report has found as many as 36% cows distributed in three districts were no longer there. They had either died or sold or were simply untraceable.
In Mandwa village, farmers received 46 cows. Not one remains. Another farmer, Shreeram Kumre had built a cow-shed but had to sell the animal.
''We sold her off in just two months. We couldn't afford her. She needed large quantities of the expensive cattle feed,'' Kumre says.
What's made things worse for the farmers under the scheme is that they had to shell out 25% of the cost of the cow while the government put in the rest.
''We paid Rs. 9,000 for two cows. We could have got three or four local cows for that sum and they would have been alive today,'' says Sonerao Masram, a farmer.
Many farmers still wonder why the government chose such an expensive hybrid instead of local cattle, a decision that proved disastrous. Farmers say they would have really benefitted had they been consulted before.