Guwahati: Senior BJP leader and Assam education minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya is yet to shift to his official residence in Ministers Colony in Dispur, but his Jersey cows — brought especially for the purpose of daily farming — have already settled comfortably in the colony campus.
This is the first time in Assam that a cabinet minister has decided to start a dairy farm inside his official residence. Former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav is the only other senior minister known to have a cow farm inside his residence.
Bhattacharya has appointed four employees for the management of the farm and pays them Rs 300 each for a day’s work. "The four of us are responsible for the caretaking of four jersey cows," an employee told News18.
"Daily, about 20 to 25 litre of milk is produced here. It is used for the minister’s personal use and also for the temples of Guwahati,” the employee added.
Bhattacharyya had joined the BJP in 1995 and was party president of Assam unit in 2014, but was replaced by Sarbananda Sonowal ahead of Assam Legislative Assembly election in 2016.
He was defeated from Gauhati east constituency seat in Assam Legislative Assembly election in 2011 with a margin of 3,997 votes by Robin Bordoloi of Indian National Congress. But he won the Gauhati East constituency in state elections in 2016 by defeating Congress’s Bobeeta Sharma by a record margin of 96,637 votes.
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