Reviewed on: 2026-06-12.
Hariram, a dairy farmer in Sikar district, Rajasthan, keeps three cows and one buffalo. In February 2026 the NADCP foot and mouth disease round came through his village. The team vaccinated his neighbour's herd but tagged and vaccinated only two of his four animals; the other two had no ear tags, so the vaccinators skipped them and moved on. He had also applied in September at the veterinary dispensary for the female calf's brucellosis dose, due between four and eight months of age. That window is now closing.
Count what the miss costs him. A private FMD dose costs roughly Rs 30 to 40 per animal, so the free round was worth perhaps Rs 150 across his herd. But an FMD infection can cut a cow's milk yield by a third or more for months. At 8 litres a day and Rs 35 a litre, even a 30 percent drop for 90 days is about Rs 7,500 of lost milk from one animal. The vaccine is small money; the protection is not. That is why the missed round is worth a written fight, not a shrug.
Here is what Hariram did, and what you should do in the same order.
Government animal health schemes run on the 12-digit ear tag recorded in the national livestock database (INAPH, now the Bharat Pashudhan system). An untagged animal does not exist for the scheme. Hariram went to the government veterinary dispensary and asked, in writing, for his two untagged animals to be tagged and registered. Tagging under the national programme is free. He photographed each animal with its new tag visible and noted all four tag numbers.
Do this first even if you are angry about the missed round. Every later step leans on those numbers.
A phone call leaves nothing behind. Hariram submitted this at the panchayat samiti veterinary office and took an inward number:
To the Block Veterinary Officer / Veterinary Officer In-charge, Government Veterinary Dispensary, [village], Panchayat Samiti [block], District Sikar Subject: Animals left out of NADCP FMD round of [month/year] and pending brucellosis vaccination I am [name], resident of [village]. I own 4 animals; ear tag numbers [list]. During the FMD round held in our village on [date], only two of my animals were vaccinated. My female calf, tag no. [number], aged [months], registered for brucellosis vaccination on [date], has not been vaccinated and her eligible age window is closing. I request that: 1. My remaining animals be covered in the current or catch-up FMD round, with the date intimated to me. 2. The calf's brucellosis dose be administered within her age window. 3. If any record shows my animals as already vaccinated, I be shown that entry and its date. Kindly acknowledge with a dated inward number. [Name, mobile, village, date] Enclosures: tag numbers, photographs, copy of earlier application
Give the office two to three weeks. Vaccination teams do run catch-up rounds, and a written request with tag numbers is easy for an honest office to act on.
If nothing moves, send the same file with a covering letter to the District Animal Husbandry Officer (in Rajasthan, the Joint Director, Animal Husbandry, Sikar), by registered post. In parallel, log the grievance on the state portal, Rajasthan Sampark (sampark.rajasthan.gov.in or call 181), which gives you a tracking number the department must answer. Because NADCP and the Livestock Health and Disease Control programme are centrally funded, a CPGRAMS grievance at pgportal.gov.in addressed to the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying also lands with force. Use the state portal for action on the ground and CPGRAMS for the funding trail; quote the same facts in both.
In other states the ladder is the same shape with different names: block veterinary officer, then the district animal husbandry officer or deputy director, then the state directorate, plus the state grievance portal. Find your state portal in our state directory.
The veterinary department is a public authority. When the office claims your village was “fully covered”, the camp records settle it. Hariram filed an RTI on the Rajasthan RTI portal (rti.rajasthan.gov.in, fee Rs 10) to the PIO, office of the Joint Director, Animal Husbandry, Sikar:
These are record-based questions, so the PIO has nothing vague to hide behind. A reply is due in 30 days. If a tag number is shown as vaccinated when the animal never was, that mismatch is serious; attach the reply to a fresh complaint to the Joint Director and the state directorate. No reply, or an evasive one, goes to first appeal. The filing steps are in our guide to filing RTI online.
A rejected claim from a private livestock insurer is not an RTI matter; that goes to the insurer's grievance cell and then the insurance ombudsman. If your insurer simply went silent on a cattle policy claim, the pattern in claim closed without communication fits. Likewise, a private dairy or a milk union that is not a public authority is outside RTI. The department's own records, camps, tags, stock and beneficiary lists are always inside it.
Farmers fighting one records battle often have another pending. If your land papers are also stuck, see mutation delayed after inheritance and private land shown as government land.
It is a 12-digit unique ID on the yellow polyurethane tag, recorded in the Bharat Pashudhan (earlier INAPH) database. The veterinary staff can look up your animal's vaccination history against the tag number; ask them to show you the entry.
Accept it only in writing with a date. FMD rounds run roughly every six months under NADCP, and catch-up visits do happen, but an oral promise is unenforceable. Your written complaint with the inward number is what makes the next round real.
Raise it in writing immediately. The eligible window is a programme norm, and the department should state in writing what it will do for an animal that aged out due to its own delay. Keep that reply; it matters if the animal later contracts the disease.
There is no automatic compensation, and entitlements vary by state and outbreak notification. Your written complaint trail and the RTI reply showing the department skipped your animal are the documents any claim, representation or court case would rest on.
The application fee in Rajasthan is Rs 10. Copying charges, usually Rs 2 per page, apply to the documents supplied. Below poverty line applicants are exempt from the application fee on proof.
NADCP and LH&DC are centrally sponsored but state implemented. Field action sits with the state department, which is why the block and district officers come first, while CPGRAMS reaches the central department that funds and monitors the programme.
Download the cattle scheme complaint and RTI checklist (PDF) before your dispensary visit.