Govindas calls for strengthening CAU
Source: The Sangai Express / Manipur Info Centre

New Delhi, February 18 2015: Minister of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry, Govindas Konthoujam today requested Union Minister of Agriculture Radhamohon Singh to strengthen the Central Agricultural University at Imphal, to provide more subsidy to black rice farmers in Manipur apart from introduction of scientific and modern technology for fish farming in Loktak Lake, establishment of Animal Health Monitoring and Surveillance System in all the border towns of North Eastern States with a quarantine station each.

He was speaking at the 86th annual general meeting of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research on Thursday at National Agricultural Science Complex, Pusa.

Union Minister of Agriculture Radha-mohan Singh was in the chair.

Govindas Kongthoujam stated that animal husbandry and dairying was an important component of rural livelihood and it played an important role in the economy of Manipur and of the country.

The Manipur Govern- ment is endeavouring to improve the situation in the sector with assistance of the Central Government.

He pointed out that the State faced an annual deficit of 4.767 thousand MT of meat, 1978.49 thousand MT of milk and 374.49 lakhs of egg as per report of 2013-14 .

Govindas calls for strengthening CAU

He further stated that efforts had been made to bridge the gap between demand and supply through dairy, piggery and poultry development schemes under National Mission for Protein Supplement (NMPS) and National Programme for Dairy Develop- ment (NPDD) .

Under National Mission for Protein Supplement (NMPS), the State Department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry was procuring 1380 numbers of 2-3 months old improved piglets for distribution to 460 BPL beneficiaries of the State and a Farmers Training Centre was being constructed for facilitating refresher training of livestock farming during the year 2014-15, he added.

He mentioned that under National Programme for Bovine Breeding (NPBB), the State Department submitted a project proposal for a sum of Rs 2460.67 lakh.

However, in the Project Sanctioning Committee (PSC) meeting held on September 1 last year, a sum of Rs 2006.70 lakh was approved for implementation of NPBB and a sum of Rs 650 lakh was released during the year 2014-15 under the scheme.

Govindas said that under National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD), a sum of Rs 2 crore was released to the Manipur Milk Producers' Co-operative Union which is the State Imple- menting Agency through the Department of Co-operation, Government of Manipur.

He mentioned that the Manipur Milk Producers' Co-operative Union Ltd.

had executed an MoU which authorised the utilisation of land, infrastructure, equipments & machi- neries including manpower of the Veterinary Dept with the State Veterinary Dept responsible for pay and allowance till the Union becomes self-sustainable, whereas, the Union had also agreed to levy a sum of Re1/- per litre of milk as a royalty to the State Veterinary Department.

He referred to the guidelines of Government of India for formation of the Technical Management Committee (TMC) for NPDD which prescribed, "NPDD : Technical Management Committee under the chairmanship of Se- cretary in-charge of Dairy Development of the State, shall be constituted with membership from the Departments of Planning, Finance, Veterinary, Dairy Development, State Dairy Federation/District Milk Union, Project Director of DRDA of the respective State Governments.

There shall be one member from DADF, GoI representing the scheme.

TMC shall be organised after every six months (September and March) to review progress of technical, physical and financial parameters and remove bottlenecks quickly" .

But the Government of India released the sum of Rs 2 crore through the Department of Cooperation, Govern- ment of Manipur which was irrelevant.

He drew the attention of the Union Minister of Agriculture to look into the method fund release as per guidelines prescribed under the National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) .

The Manipur Veterinary Minister said, "The Manipuri cattle particularly the bull are stout with fully developed hump and are known for its draught power and resistance to disease, and they can thrive well in various agro-climatic conditions.