In a move that would give leverage to farmers to buy fodder of their choice at the price they feel is right for the cattle, the Department of Animal Husbandry has introduced ‘e-Laabh’, a benefit management system, for the first time on Tuesday.
Under this scheme, the financial benefit would be directly transferred to the beneficiary, like that of gas subsidy. The scheme was launched by Suresh Chanda, Principal Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.
This was being extended to the farmers who are already selected for the Sunandini scheme in 2016-2017 in the erstwhile Medak district consisting of present Siddipet (955 calves), Medak (117 calves), and Sangareddy (1,196 calves) districts. During the current year, 612 kg of fodder would be supplied to each calf.
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In the earlier process, the beneficiary had to apply to the Animal Husbandry office, wait for the scrutiny of the application, then an official would visit the beneficiary; the department would call for tender for rate contract, then the dealer would have to wait for the indent to supply fodder, the beneficiary had to check the availability, and only then would the fodder be allotted.
The beneficiary had to visit the Animal Husbandry office at least three times before the he gets the benefit.
Under e-Laabh, the beneficiaries have to register along with the Aadhaar card number, caste certificate, bank account details, IFSC code, and cell number at MeeSeva centres. Forms could also be downloaded from the app. Once uploaded, the officials would commence the process. The beneficiary could purchase quality fodder in the open market and upload the receipt online.
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“There will be little interference from the department and practically no physical interface. The farmer will have choice in deciding the quality and rate of the fodder. At every stage, the beneficiary will get information through SMS. This is an IT-enabled robust monitoring system which arrests corruption,” said Mr. Chanda.
When asked about the possible manipulation of bills, he said,
“The system is built on the trust that the citizen is the best person to think what is good for him. Citizen should make use of subsidy to buy cattle so that the calf of today will be a good milking animal of tomorrow.”