Bhubaneswar: Amid rising cases of cruelty to animals, govt is planning to amend the Orissa Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1960, chief minister Mohan Majhi said at the Monsoon Meet 2024 organised by the ministry of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying here on Friday.
The Act prohibits and prevents the slaughter of cows and their progeny. Official sources said the state govt may enforce the Act with some necessary amendments.However, govt is yet to divulge details related to the amendments.
Majhi, addressing Union ministers and ministers of 15 states attending the event, said his govt is preparing a ‘Small Animal Breeding Policy’ for holistic growth of the sector. “To strengthen poultry and small animal production, my govt has planned the Prani Sampad Samrudhhi Yojana,” he added.
Majhi said his govt has come up with the GOMATA (Goal for Management and Treatment of Animals) Yojana. “We have also introduced a new scheme, Mukhyamantri Prani Kalyan Yojana, with the objective of fostering a more compassionate and responsible approach towards stray and destitute animals,” he added. On Friday, a memorandum of understanding was signed with National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) for strengthening the milk cooperative and boosting production in the state. “We are also collaborating with NDDB to set up a vaccine production unit in Berhampur and a state-of-the-art feed analytical laboratory at Bhubaneswar,” said Majhi.
Later Union secretary of animal husbandry and dairying, Alka Upadhyaya, chaired a regional review meeting here with officials of eastern states — mainly Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Meghalaya — to discuss the progress of various departmental programmes and schemes. She urged officials to identify local strategies to enhance the number of productive bovine and address fodder constraints, taking into account scarcity and climate variations.

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