Officials gear up for distribution of sheep to 12,783 beneficiaries in Warangal

Officials have decided to procure sheep from the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra States and hand over a unit consisting of 21 animals each to the beneficiaries

Warangal: District officials here are gearing up for the distribution of sheep to 12,783 beneficiaries under the second phase of the State government’s sheep distribution scheme.

They have decided to procure sheep from the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra States and hand over a unit consisting of 21 animals each to the beneficiaries from this month to August.

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“We are going to issue a notice seeking tenders for transporting the sheep from other states to our district,” said an official. It may be recalled that 12,957 beneficiaries from Golla/Yadava/Kuruma communities were provided with the sheep in the first phase in the district. While the government is providing Rs 1,31,250 subsidy on each unit (21 sheep), the beneficiary has to pay Rs 43,750 as his contribution in the form of a demand draft. While 20 female sheep and one male sheep is distributed to each beneficiary, the unit cost was Rs 1.25 lakh during the first phase. Now, the unit cost has gone to Rs 1.75 lakh. Some beneficiaries have already handed over the DDs to the Animal Husbandry department.

During a meeting held a couple of days ago by Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, it was decided to make the beneficiaries pay their DDs, making the district collectors responsible for overseeing the beneficiary deposits, releasing subsidy amounts and other processes.

Senior officials chosen by the collector will have to visit the places along with beneficiaries to procure the units. Veterinary officials will monitor the health of the sheep and their insurance. The sheep units are transported to the local MLA camp offices first and they would be dispatched to mandals where local people’s representatives will oversee the process of sheep units reaching the beneficiaries.