Opposition demands inquiry into Beed fodder camp scam

Government claims precautions have been taken

A day after

The Hindu exposed fodder camps set up in Marathwada’s Beed district for the unusually high number of cattle admitted, the Congress on Friday demanded a thorough inquiry into the scam.

“The State is facing drought, while the system is minting money through fodder camps. The camps in Beed are run by politicians or sponsored by them. The people running these fodder camps are being benefited and need to be investigated thoroughly,” said Maharashtra Congress committee president Ashok Chavan.

Mr. Chavan said since the district administration was busy in election process, it seems the lower rank officials were unable to control on who is setting up fodder camps and what is happening within. “Drought should not be used to make money,” he said.

The Congress has also questioned the State government’s move to charge taxes on the amount released by them for the fodder camps. “How can government expect income from the drought aid? We demand that GST and TDS should not be applied to the fodder camp bills,” said Mr. Chavan.

Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Chandrakant Patil said the district administration is conducting an inquiry into the allegations of irregularities within fodder camps where cattle number is being blown out of proportion.

“We have taken steps to tackle the problem. The trial run of geo-tags to be attached to animals was conducted since May 15. The actual process to attach these tags will begin from May 21. We will take weekly reviews of the tags which will help us study whether the animal actually exists in a fodder camp, before releasing money,” said Mr. Patil.

Of the 1,354 fodder camps across the State, Beed has the highest at 601. State government records show that of the 9,06,665 cattle in these fodder camps, Beed alone accounts for nearly 49% with 4,21,448 cattle. This unusually high number of cattle admitted in these fodder camps has prompted the state administration to issue orders to conduct proper inquiries before releasing funds to organisers of these fodder camps.