Madhya Pradesh govt plans state's first animal blood bank

Bhopal: After unveiling its plan to set up 1,000 ‘gaushalas’ or cattle shelters in Madhya Pradesh, the Kamal Nath government is currently mulling to establish state’s first animal blood bank at an estimated cost of Rs 50 crore.

Sources in chief minister’s office (CMO) told this newspaper here on Friday that the state government would attract private investments for setting up the proposed animal blood bank.

“The state government may not be in a position to fund the project. Hence, we have decided to seek private investments for setting up the blood bank.

Even, an alternative proposal was being considered to pool funds earmarked under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the private companies to establish the animal blood bank”, a senior state government officer said unwilling to be quoted since he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The farmers in the state are currently dependent on animal blood banks in Gurgaon in Haryana and Chennai in Tamil Nadu to treat their sick domestic animals such as cattle, goats, chicken etc.

The establishment of the animal blood bank in MP would save them from unnecessary expenditure incurred due to transportation of the domestic animals to these two states.

“It will be an ultra modern animal blood bank”, the officer said.

The state government is also planning to woo investors to set up animal blood banks in the state by ensuring incentives in purchase of lands and tax benefits. The state government earlier announced to set up ‘gaushalas’ in each panchayat in the state, besides building ‘high-tech’ cattle shelters with private initiative.