New Delhi, June 17 (IANS): The government decided to include the three states of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh under the National Dairy Plan-I on Wednesday.

The decision to include the three states that were formed in the year 2000, was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

The implementation period of the NDP-I has been extended up to 2018-19 in order to achieve key outputs of the plan, IT and Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media.

The two states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are primarily inhabited by tribal population having a substantial number of milch cattle and have the potential for coverage under NDP-I.

Uttarakhand has also been included in the NDP-I, considering the potential for implementation of ration balancing programme, fodder development and village based milk procurement system.

NDP-I was approved for implementation in 14 milk potential states by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) with a total outlay of Rs.2,242 crore for a period of six years from 2011-12 to 2016-17.

It is currently being implemented in 15 states, which account for more than 90 per cent of the country's milk production, over 87 per cent of the breedable cattle and buffaloes, and 98 per cent of the country's fodder resources.