Punishment Posting? UP Govt Asks DMs To 'Celebrate' Deepotsav At Cow Shelters & Click Pictures

After catapulting into Guinness Book of World Records with the lighting of close to 5 lakh diyas or earthen lamps on the banks of Sarayu river in Ayodhya, the Uttar Pradesh government wants to take it further. At a time when everyone wants to be with the family, the government as asked senior officials to spend Diwali at cow shelters.

The state¡¯s Gau Sewa Aayog, nodal body in-charge of bovine welfare in UP, issues decrees to district magistrates to replicate deepotsav in cow shelters.

The Aayog¡¯s directive for district magistrates came on Friday, mounting the pressure on an overstrained veterinary department, which will now have to shoot and dispatch footage of lighting of diyas.

Representational Image

Aayog chairman Shyam Nandan Singh told The Times of India, "Cows are worshipped after Diwali, so there's nothing wrong in celebrating deepotsav at gaushalas,"

The Aayog's unrehearsed order created a sharp situation in districts where lakhs of cows are housed in thousands of cow shelters and authorities would have to mobilise funds to buy lakhs of diyas and hundreds of litres of mustard oil from the local market on short notice.

As soon as the order reached offices, district authorities rushed to make the necessary arrangements to celebrate the festival with cows.

The department is already facing cash crunch for buying fodder and such a directive will only increase the financial burden.

Earlier, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had suspended Maharajganj DM N K Upadhyaya for shoddy upkeep of cow sheds, embezzlement of assets in buying fodder and negligence at work.

The chief minister has recurrently told district authorities to take care of stray cows and build sheds at their own expenses, but funds are yet to trickle down to grassroots.