The Hindu Religious Charitable Endowments Department has taken a decision to hand over the cows donated to Srirangam Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple to women members of self-help groups for ensuring proper maintenance.
It was a problem of plenty for the goshala at the temple with 88 cows. Dearth of space forced us to shift the animals to a ground at Kambarasampettai, about six km from Srirangam, where 38 cows were being reared.
All these 38 cows together with their calves were handed over to select members of various women self-help groups.
Initially, the HR and CE planned to auction the cows.
But, since the animals were reportedly sent to slaughter houses, the Department then changed its decision and handed a few cows to private goshala owners.
“It was too difficult to monitor whether the cows are being properly maintained even at private goshala, as animals are prone to diseases,” an official also said.
Hence, the HR and CE decided to identify women beneficiaries through the District Implementation Unit of the Tamil Nadu Rural Livelihood Mission.
The economic condition of women and their capability to rear the milch animals were taken into consideration before selecting the women members who hailed from Andanallur, Mannachanallur, Manikandam and Tiruverambur blocks, the official told The Hindu at Kambarasampettai.
Vellamandi N. Natarajan, Minister for Tourism, handed over 38 cows and calves to the women beneficiaries on Saturday.
K. S. Palanisamy, District Collector, P. Kumar, Member of Parliament, P.Jayaraman, Joint Commissioner of the temple, were present.
