Ranvijay Singh/ Diti Bajpai
“I have been working in the goshala (cow shelter) for the past one year, but haven’t received a single rupee. Whenever I talk to the officials, they say it will be next month, however, no money comes even the next month,” said Rajendra Gautam, 45. Rajendra is from Bhatau Jamalpur Village, situated about 35 kms from Lucknow, and works in the temporary bovine shelter as a gosevak (attendant).
Like Rajendra, the temporary shelter has six attendants whose duty is to look after the stray animals housed in it. Their work includes everything from feeding the animals to keeping them clean, but they are not being paid for their job. Other bovine shelters also face a similar situation.
Uttar Pradesh has 4,954 temporary bovine shelters which house a total of 4.2 lakh stray animals. The gram pradhans have been entrusted with the responsibility of these shelters. They appoint attendants on the basis of the number of animals —the shelters having more animals will have more attendants. For example, there are six attendants at the shelter in Bhatau Jamalpur that has 319 animals while smaller shelters have two.
Lucknow’s Dasdoi village also has a bovine shelter. Its attendant Ramesh has also not received any remuneration so far. Ramesh doesn’t even know how much he’d get for a day’s work. He simply said: “I have been working here for the past five months but haven’t received any payment.” He also informed that the pradhan simply provides for his meals. He hopes to be paid soon for his hard work.
Uttar Pradesh’s Animal Husbandry Department’s joint director (Godhan), Dr AK Singh said: “I have come to know of the attendants not being paid from you. I will have the matter investigated. If found so, the provision for their payments shall be made out of the 14th financial budget of the Panchayati Raj Department.”
Pradhans, on the other hand, claim otherwise. Bhatau Jamalpur’s pradhan, Sanjay Saini said: “When the cow shelters were made, the officials had directed us to keep attendants for which we employed local villagers. When it came to their payments, we were told to pay them Rs 181 per day as per the MGNREGA norms and put their names in the MGNREGA records. No clear orders have been issued as to where from the payment be released for the attendants so we are unable to release their wages.”
He added: “Due to this, I am paying these attendants out of my own pockets and feeding them from my kitchen.” He claimed that, so far, he has given up to Rs 10-15,000 to each attendant from his pocket.
Another issue is that due to there not being paid, the attendants are not doing their work properly and wish to leave. Birbal is one such attendant who works for the cow shelter in Lucknow’s Gose Lalpur village. He said: “When the goshala started, the pradhan had told us to keep it clean and that we’d get money every month, but it didn’t happen. I don’t feel like working anymore. I would wait for a month or two and leave after that.”
While Birbal is still contemplating about living, others have already done it. Recently, it was reported that in Amethi’s Nevada village shelter, many attendants had left the job. The gram pradhan had then informed that 13 attendants were appointed for the upkeep of the animals out of which two had left in November due to nonpayment of wages.
