BDL employee starts ‘Gift a Cattle’ campaign to aid farmers

Arikapudi Raghu, who works as chief master technician at BDL launched ‘Gift a Cattle’ challenge after he himself gifted seven bulls and a buffalo to farmers

Sangareddy: A BDL employee has come up with a novel idea to help farmers distressed by the loss of cattle in accidents such as lightning or electrocution across the State. Arikapudi Raghu, who works as chief master technician at BDL and is always ready to extend a helping hand to people in need, launched ‘Gift a Cattle’ challenge after he himself gifted seven bulls and a buffalo to farmers.

Moved by the plight of farmers whose cattle died of electrocution, lighting or any other accident, Raghu with the help of his colleagues, friends and NGOs has helped several farmers across the State in the past couple of years. While he himself bought and donated five cattle, three bulls were given with the support of Hope4Spandana, an NGO.

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Since he has been receiving several requests from farmers across the State, Raghu, who gifted three bulls to two farmers in Narsimhulapet mandal of Mahabubabad district on Thursday, threw the challenge to two of his friends who accepted it and decided to gift a cattle each immediately.

His friends Dandamudi Srinivas Rao, an industrialist, and Shiva Venkata Prasad, a businessman, are now ready to gift a cattle each to two farmers. The two will now throw the challenge to two of their friends to continue with the chain that would ultimately benefit farmers.

“When I was trying to mobilise funds for 11 bulls to be given to farmers in Mahabubabad district whose cattle died of electrocution last month, I also came across newspaper reports about the death of 32 cattle at Rotiguda village in Mancherial district. I have so far received 108 such requests from across Telangana,” Raghu told Telangana Today.

His friends suggested that he launch a campaign to support all such farmers. Stating that the farmer considers a cow, bull or buffalo as his family member, Raghu said the death of cattle pushes him/her into financial problems. “We saw several farmers’ families crying inconsolably over carcasses of cattle as if they had lost a family member, and this made me launch the campaign,” he said.

Stating that his philanthropic work gives him immense pleasure, Raghu said he had some very good friends who had been supporting him all through. He called upon people to participate in the ‘Gift a Cattle’ campaign to support farmers.

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