Mamata Banerjee govt to distribute cows to families ahead of West Bengal's 2018 panchayat election

Kolkata: The West Bengal government has decided to distribute cows among the families living in panchayat areas across the state where rural polls are scheduled to be held in 2018. Animal Resources Development Minister Swapan Debnath said this project would make the families self-reliant and increase milk production in the state. The process of distribution of cows would start soon and the entire process would be completed in the next couple of months, he said. “The state government has decided to distribute cows to families residing in the panchayat areas of the districts. We want those families to be self-reliant,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_4211311” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Mamata Banerjee government has decidied to distribute cows to families in panchayat area to make them “self-reliant”.[/caption] “We are hopeful that through the distribution of cows we will be able to enhance milk production. That is the reason we have decided to distribute female calves,” the minister said. During the Trinamool Congress government regime, milk production in West Bengal has gone up by 16 percent compared to what it was during the Left Front rule, he said. “But there is still shortfall and we want to overcome it,” Debnath said. To a question, he said the decision to distribute cows has nothing to do with the panchayat elections. As per the decision, each family will get one cow, the minister said. The distribution of cows would start with Birbhum district where the state government has set an initial target of giving away 1,000 cows.