The construction of double bedroom houses as part of the government scheme on the outskirts of the town is likely to pose a threat to the Frozen Semen Bull Station of Telangana State Livestock Development Agency (TSLDA), which supplies semen for artificial insemination to increase milk production in the State.
Though the TSLDA has not allocated land for the proposed housing scheme, Minister for Finance Eatala Rajender along with local legislator G. Kamalakar, MLC Naradasu Laxman and Collector Sarfaraz Ahmed took part in bhoomi puja on Thursday. On the occasion, they said the government would construct ground plus five apartments on ten acres of land and provide shelter to beneficiaries.
The Frozen Semen Bull Station (FSBS) houses costly bulls from Germany, Denmark and other States of the country with superior germ-plasm that needs to be protected from certain highly-infectious livestock diseases. The entire land under the control of FSBS has been declared high bio-secure area and any human or animal habitation near the station poses a threat to the life and productivity of the high quality breeding bulls.
Fodder cultivation
FSBS Deputy Director P. Jayakar said the institution has been recognised by the Union Government as one of the few semen stations in the country with grade ‘A’.
It has been selected under the National Dairy Plan-1 to increase the existing bull strength from 83 to 150 and produce semen doses from existing 15 lakh per annum to 30 lakh by 2017-18 at a cost of ₹10 crore.
To increase bull population, more area would be required under fodder cultivation at the FSBS, he said and added that the allocation of land for 2BHK scheme would reduce fodder production and also affect the bulls.
Official sources said the entire area (about one km radius of FSBS) has been declared high bio-secure zone and there should not be any human habitation in this area.
They also reminded that the State government had directed the officials not to allocate land belonging to Veterinary Department, particularly the FSBS, to any department.
When asked about the housing scheme, legislator G. Kamalakar said the bull station was quite far from the proposed site of construction and it would not pose any threat to it. However, the Collector visited the FSBS and inspected the same and enquired about its expansion plans.
