File photo of Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis

MUMBAI: Three years after it brought in the beef ban, the BJP-led government in Maharashtra has decided to create a Maharashtra Gau Seva Aayog ( Cow Commission ) that will work to "save the cow and its progeny" and ensure proper implementation of the state's law against cow slaughter.

The commission, which will be part of the animal husbandry department, will also be tasked with "protecting cattle seized by police and starting the process of taking legal action against the accused." It will "study schemes that could lead to bio-gas projects through cow dung or urine" and submit its findings to the government and train gau shala volunteers to take care of cattle. It is also expected to coordinate with universities carrying out programmes on cattle and fodder development.

The commission will work from Pune. However, the animal husbandry department is yet to decide on the budget allocation for it.

Minister for animal husbandry Mahadev Jankar told TOI, "The breeding of desi (Indian) cows, their protection and ensuring an increase in milk production will be some of the commission's aims. The proposal about its formation will be tabled before the state cabinet next week." A bill in this regard will be tabled in both houses of the state legislature in the winter session, Jankar added.

The Congress has slammed the move, especially as it comes in the wake of the arrest of a gau rakshak, Vaibhav Raut, from Nalasopara from whose residence investigating agencies recovered explosives. "Gau rakshaks are being arrested with bombs in their homes. But the BJP is playing politics in the name of the cow as the Lok Sabha and assembly elections are due in 2019. The state could not even provide fodder camps when these were required for abandoned cattle," said Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant. He added that the BJP could not enforce a beef ban in neighbouring Goa, where too it is in power.

An official said that the proposal for such a commission was first mooted in 1998 by the then minister for animal husbandry Narayan Rane. But the commission was not created at that time.

The Devendra Fadnavis government in 2015 amended the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) 1995 Act to bring in the cow slaughter ban.

