Vet diagnostic centres planned in Tiruvallur, Tirupur

Replying to the debate on the demand for grants for his department, Animal Husbandry Minister P. Balakrishna Reddy said on Friday that the diagnostic centres would be set up at a cost of Rs 1.50 crore. In a bid to prevent the losses to farmers following diseases to cattle, to diagnose the diseases using modern technology and to ensure that the impact of bird flu in the neighbouring states were negated in Tamil Nadu, the veterinary diagnostic centres were being set up. 

The government proposed to set up a Rs 2.56-crore fodder inspection unit at Palladam in Tirupur district. This was necessitated by the use of items not commonly given to livestock, Balakrishna Reddy said.  The offices of the Kanchipuram regional joint director and assistant director would be provided new buildings at an estimated Rs.1.60 crore in the current year, while a Rs.8.50-lakh veterinary epidemiology centre would come up in Chennai in the same period. 

The department would also be given 11 new vehicles at a cost of Rs.67 lakh, Tamil Nadu witnessed a white revolution following the distribution of 60,000 cows free to 60,000 beneficiaries at an estimated Rs.211.19 crore over five years resulting in the production of 2.66 lakh litres milk daily. He also said 75,796 calves valued at Rs 37.89 crore were insured. These animals produced 6.71 lakh metric tonnes of fertiliser which was used in 1.35 lakh acres, he added. 

During the same period, 7 lakh beneficiaries were given 28 lakh sheep and goats costing Rs 905.37 crore, leading to the birth of 44.67 lakh calves valued at Rs.1114 crore, the minister said. Similarly, beneficiaries earned Rs 140 crore from broiler chicken farms and Rs 289 crore from country chicken farms in the last five years through the production of 3.5 lakh MT and 0.19 MT meat respectively the minister said. The farms also produced 6990.59 crore eggs, he averred. 

A total of 27, 500 livestock protection camps were conducted in five years benefitting 36.79 farmers and 3.21 crore animals, he said and added that under the state government’s livestock insurance scheme 7.11 lakh animals were insured to the tune of Rs 37.16 crore. For the first time in India, the government had introduced “Amma mobile livestock ambulances” through the TN animal sciences and veterinary university at an estimated Rs 6.34 crore. The units would be in Tiruchy, Thanjavur, Kanchipuram, Namakkal and Madurai districts.