Hyderabad: Probe sought on sheep sop

Hyderabad: Alleging corrupt practices in the implementation of the government’s flagship sheep rearing scheme, which aims to strengthen the rural economy of shepherd communities, a public interest litigation has been filed before the Telangana High Court seeking to order a CBI inquiry into the programme.

The NGO Watch-Voice of the People filed the petition stating that less than 10 per cent of the 3,19,477 sheep units distributed to beneficiaries was legitimate while the rest existed only on paper as the units were being recycled for distribution.

The NGO also stated that in addition to the illegalities in sheep distribution, it had found that money for fodder was being paid to shepherd communities wh-ich did not possess even a single sheep unit. Crores of public money were being misused.

The NGO stated that the sheep were being sold by beneficiaries to AP and other neighboring states with help from agents, who then sold them back to the Telangana state government for distribution to the beneficiaries. This can be discerned from the number of tag holes in the ears of the sheep. It told the court that several sheep were fou-nd to have more than six tag holes, which means they were recycled up to six times for additional payments.

The petitioner urged the court to direct the CBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the entire sheep and fodder distribution sch-eme and submit a rep-ort to the High Court.

The government took up the implementation of the scheme to supply four lakh sheep units at an estimated cost of Rs 5,000 crore to strengthen the economic standards of the shepherd communitie. Each family was to get 21 sheep on a 75 per cent subsidy.