Aadhaar for cattle: What will be the cost of UID numbers for cows? Digvijaya Singh asks Modi govt

Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday lashed out at the Narendra Modi government over its move to approach the Supreme Court on Monday to provide unique identification numbers similar to Aadhaar for cows in the country.

“What has happened to Modiji? Now, they are making Aadhaar cards for cows,” said Singh in his tweets. “What will be the cost of making Aadhaar cards for cows? Will cow vigilantes get the responsibility for this too?” he added. [caption id=“attachment_3387008” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Digvijaya Singh. PTI[/caption] “Will Muslim cattle keepers be protected from these cow vigilantes even then?” said the Congress leader. The Modi government’s move to provide ID numbers for cows is part of its plans of tagging and tracking cattle to ensure they get vaccines on time, which can improve their breeding and milk production, and double the industry’s income by 2022. The central government has also recommended special care for cattle beyond the age of milking. A report in The Economic Times in January said that nearly one lakh technicians are fanning out across the country since 1 January, and will affix a tag containing a 12-digit unique identification number inside the ear of every single cow and buffalo in the country — all 88 million of them. The ambitious project will be concluded by the end of this year and comes at a cost of Rs 148 crore. These “animal Aadhaar cards” will contain the breed and age of the cattle, as well as information about the owner, location and also details about its vaccination. This move comes about a year after Jharkhand embarked upon a similar mission, to trace and tag the 42 lakh cattle it had.