The Himachal Pradesh assembly on Thursday adopted resolution, urging the Union government to declare cow as ‘Rashtra Mata’.

A private member resolution in this regard was moved by Congress member from Kasumpti, Anirudh Singh under Rule 101.

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In his reply, Animal Husbandry minister Virender Kanwar said the issue of declaring cow as ‘Rashtra Mata’ comes under the purview of Central government.

Kanwar said as per the 2012 cattle census, there were a total of 21.94 lakh cows in the state, out of which 11.65 lakh are of indigenous breed and 9.84 lakh of foreign or hybrid breed.

He said the government was working to conserve and protect indigenous breed of cows and had a Bill conservation and welfare of cows.

Further, Gauseva Aayog would be constituted in Himachal Pradesh that aims to regulate the institutions established for welfare of cows.

Besides this, cow sanctuaries would be set up in all districts of the state and one sanctuary at Kotla Barog in Sirmour district is being set up by the government at a cost of Rs 1.52 crore.

The government has also announced to use 15 per cent income of temples for maintenance of Gausadans and 1 per cent cess is being levied on the sale of every liquor in the state for the purpose.

The HP government is also aiming to promote indigenous breed of cow and a project proposal named ‘Gauri’ has been sent to the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal for the same.