Telangana has 1.92 crore sheep, Talasani Srinivas Yadav informs NCDC

Hyderabad: Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav on Monday claimed that the State is in the forefront to implement its flagship programme of sheep distribution to help the Yadava community. He said Telangana tops the nation with 1.92 crore sheep and produced 1.22 lakh tonnes of meat.

A team of National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) visited the State and held a brief meeting with the Minister and officials here. Later it appreciated the State government for the sheep programme.

The Minister, with a video presentation, explained to the team about sheep distribution programme. He said it helped creation of wealth and developed Yadavas in a big way. "The scheme is implemented only in Telangana; no other State is able to implement it," he claimed. He attributed the scheme to the vision and commitment of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

Yadav said the second phase of sheep distribution was on. The government released Rs 5,000 crore, in addition to Rs 6,000 crore made available for the first phase. The government gave 79.16 lakh sheep to 376,985 beneficiaries in the first phase. Their number increased by 1.30 crore, he said adding the market value of the same is about Rs 6,500 crore.

The government gave sheep to 7.61 lakh Yadava families each unit of 21 sheep (20 females, 1 male) for Rs 1.25 lakh. This will get them 75 per cent of subsidy. The Minister said now the government increased each unit cost to Rs 1.75 lakh for 21 sheep.

The NCDC team included Sudhir Kumar Sharma, Mukhesh Kumar, Bhupender Singh, Tehadur Rahman, Dubasi and Srinivasulu.