Chandigarh, Sep 28 (IANS): Punjab's ambitious plans to have a higher milk production in the future could suffer a setback with rural veterinary officers (RVOs) in the state deciding to stop artificial insemination work from Oct 1.

Nearly 400 RVOs working in Punjab's 582 civil veterinary hospitals in rural areas have decided to boycott work related to artificial insemination on cattle, Navdeep S. Khinda, president of the RVO Association, said Saturday.

The RVOs are demanding a separate directorate under the rural development and panchayats ministry, to govern issues related to them.

"To avoid inconvenience to farmers, RVOs had given adequate time to Zila Parishads (ZPs) for making alternate arrangements to store and disperse AI straws for artificial insemination. The RVOs have stopped reporting to animal husbandry department," Khinda said.

He said that the artificial insemination work, which was taken up quite aggressively by the Punjab government, would suffer once the strike starts.

The RVOA has accused the animal husbandry department of making them toil hard for its projects and not bothering about their cadre and demands.