Sonepat: Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said the government was committed to promoting animal husbandry to make it one of the major sources of employment and income for the people of the state. He was addressing the 22nd biannual sammelan of the Diploma Veterinry Association organised at Rishikul Vidyapeeth here. He said the landholdings were shrinking and people in villages were being compelled to look for other sources of income. Realising the situation, the government had formulated new plans and accorded priority to the promotion of animal husbandry and livestock development, he said, and claimed that the annual budget of the Animal Husbandry Department had been increased around five times from Rs 55 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 272 crore this year. The Chief Minister said the proposed animal sciences university at Hisar would help bring about qualitative and quantitative improvement in this field and make Haryana