Assistance for Cattleshed, Gaman, Water Tank and Bucket

What is the Assistance for Cattleshed, Gaman, Water Tank and Bucket scheme?

Assistance for Cattleshed, Gaman, Water Tank and Bucket is a capital assistance scheme of the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Government of Gujarat, worked through the Directorate of Animal Husbandry and listed on the iKhedut portal under Animal Husbandry Schemes. The scheme pays part of the cost of building a proper cattleshed and equipping it with a gaman, the Gujarati term for the feed manger, a water tank and a bucket.

The problem the scheme addresses is unglamorous but real. A large share of Gujarat's milch animals are kept by households with one or two animals, often tethered in the open or under a temporary thatch. An animal that stands in mud through the monsoon and in direct sun through May loses condition, falls sick more often and gives less milk. A pucca floor, a roof, a manger that keeps fodder off the ground and a clean water tank change the economics of a two-animal holding more than any single input does.

Key features

• State-funded assistance channelled through the Directorate of Animal Husbandry.
• Covers a two-animal cattleshed together with the manger, water tank and bucket as a single package.
• Assistance of up to Rs 30,000 per beneficiary.
• Once in a lifetime, the same beneficiary cannot claim the component again.
• Filed online on iKhedut, with a signed printout handed in at the taluka office.

How much does the cattleshed scheme pay?

Two conditions in that single line matter more than the number itself.

First, the assistance is stated to be available after sanction of the application and construction of the cattleshed. The sequence is application → sanction → build → verification → payment. Money is not advanced for you to start work, and work started before sanction is not covered.

Second, the unit is two animals. The shed you build has to be a genuine two-animal shed of the specification the department's technical staff apply at verification; a smaller lean-to will not qualify simply because it cost less.

The department revises unit costs and the pattern of assistance from year to year, so the rate displayed against the scheme on iKhedut in the year you apply is the rate that binds, not the figure a neighbour received earlier.

Who is eligible for the cattleshed assistance?

You can apply if:

• You are a resident of Gujarat and a farmer or cattle rearer by occupation.
• You belong to the Scheduled Caste category, which the published benefit line for this component covers, and can produce a caste certificate.
• You own the land on which the shed will be built, or hold a lease of at least 10 years on it.
• You keep animals for which the shed is being built.
• You have a bank account in your own name for the transfer.

You cannot apply if:

• You have no land record and no 10-year lease. A landless cattle rearer keeping animals on someone else's plot or on common land is not eligible.
• You cannot produce a Scheduled Caste certificate while claiming under this component.
• You have already drawn this benefit. It is a once-in-a-lifetime component.
• You built the shed before sanction, in which case the claim is likely to be disallowed at verification.
• You are not a resident of Gujarat, or the land lies outside the state.

Applicants from other categories should not assume exclusion from all cattleshed support. The Directorate of Animal Husbandry runs parallel cattleshed components under the Scheduled Tribe sub-plan and other windows on iKhedut, and the correct step is to open the Animal Husbandry Schemes list in the current year and read which component your category can file under.

What documents are required?

Scan each document clearly and keep it under the file-size limit the portal displays. An unreadable land record upload is one of the commonest reasons an otherwise sound application is sent back.

How to apply for the cattleshed, gaman, water tank and bucket assistance

1. Open the iKhedut portal at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in during the application window notified for the financial year.
2. Click Schemes (Yojanao), then Animal Husbandry Schemes (Pashupalan Yojana).
3. Find the cattleshed, gaman, water tank and bucket component in the list and click Apply.
4. Choose Apply New if you are a fresh applicant, or enter your existing registration number if you have applied on iKhedut before.
5. Fill in the form — personal details, category, land survey number, number of animals kept and bank account details.
6. Use Update Application to correct anything before you finalise; once you confirm the application it cannot be edited.
7. Print the confirmed application, sign it or affix a thumb impression, and submit it with photocopies of all documents at the concerned taluka office within the time the portal states.
8. Wait for the sanction order, build the shed to specification, and present it for physical verification so the assistance can be released to your bank account.

How to apply without using a computer

Assistance for Cattleshed, Gaman, Water Tank and Bucket has no purely paper route, the application has to originate on iKhedut. Three practical options exist for applicants who cannot use the portal themselves.

1. Go to the Village Computer Entrepreneur (VCE) at the gram panchayat e-Gram centre and have the form filled there.
2. Use a Common Service Centre or an authorised cyber café and collect the printout.
3. Ask the veterinary officer or staff at the nearest veterinary dispensary or Intensive Cattle Development Programme office to point you to the right component and help with the paperwork.

How to check your application status

1. Open ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and go to the Applicant Corner (frm_Applicant_Corner.aspx).
2. Enter your application number and registered mobile number.
3. The screen shows whether the application is pending, sanctioned or rejected, and lets you view, print or upload documents against it.
4. If nothing moves for several weeks after the window closes, follow up in person at the taluka office with your printed application.

Why cattleshed applications get rejected

• Printout never submitted. The application is confirmed online but the signed copy never reaches the taluka office. This is the most avoidable rejection of all.
• Land record not in the applicant's name, or a lease shorter than 10 years.
• Caste certificate missing or expired while claiming under the Scheduled Caste component.
• Construction started before sanction, so the work cannot be certified as scheme-funded.
• Shed does not meet the two-animal specification at physical verification.
• Bank account name mismatch. A maiden name on the passbook against a married name on Aadhaar stops the transfer.
• Annual target exhausted. iKhedut components are worked against a district-wise target, and a valid application filed late can be held over to the next year.

Where to get help

• Taluka office dealing with animal husbandry schemes. The first point of contact for status, objections and the current year's window.
• District Deputy Director of Animal Husbandry for escalation when a taluka-level objection is not resolved.
• Directorate of Animal Husbandry, Gandhinagar (doah.gujarat.gov.in) for scheme guidelines and departmental circulars.
• iKhedut Applicant Corner for portal, login and document upload problems.

Because the rate, the target and the window are re-notified every financial year, read the scheme text shown on iKhedut for the current year before you order a single bag of cement. The Rs 30,000 figure and the once-in-a-lifetime condition are what the department currently publishes; both are subject to revision in a later year's resolution.