new delhi what should be done with the animal welfare department at the centre this is the question which seems to be agitating the governments mind ever since its ministerincharge maneka gandhi was dropped in the recent ministerial reshufflemaneka who was the minister for statistics and programme implementation had the department attached to this ministrybut with the present minister for statistics and programme implementation vijay goel not interested in this department the government seems befuddled wondering which ministry should this department be attached toin fact it is learnt that an order merging this department with the animal husbandry department of the ministry of agriculture was even issued but the order was hastily withdrawn once it was realised that animal welfare didnt really go well with animal husbandry which among other things counts increasing meat production in the country as one of its taskswith animal husbandry out of the running some of the contenders for this department now are the departments of science and technology headed by murli manohar joshi and environment and forests headed by t r baaluand there is a third angle too with newlyappointed minister of state for tourism and culture vinod khanna evincing interest in the department who will eventually be in charge of manekas pet department remains to be seen