Drive against stray cattle, jhuggis
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, Oct 7 — The Estate office and the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) have launched a drive to round up stray cattle and wipe out jhuggis from the open spaces in the various sectors.

The Estate Officer, Mr N.K. Singla, informed that over 100 head of cattle were driven to the shed by 30 field workers of the office. While the area around the district secretariat has been cleared, the other roads are still to get rid of the cattle menace. He said that though the men went around on all the main roads to round up the cattle, the success rate was low owing to the danger such an exercise posed to the workers.

''Herds of cattle sit all along the dividers and are a traffic hazard to the commuters. So these roads were given top priority. However, the cattle tend to run amok and we have to be careful while rounding them up since traffic continues to flow throughout the day. Also, sometimes one of these might just turn around and charge at our men,'' Mr Singla adds.

Moreover, the distance between the shed in Sector 1 and these busy roads is significant. While the field workers begin to round them up, a few of them tend to stray away from the herd. ''If our men run after one or two that digress from the chosen path, there is a possibility of losing the rest. So, generally they tend to turn a blind eye to the 'spoilsport' and direct the remaining to the shed,'' he explains.

Another cause of regular ''arrivals'' of cattle are the paltry amount charged from offenders who leave their cattle to graze in the open spaces of the city as also those who are no longer needed. While Rs 300 is the fine for a buffalo, Rs 200 is specified as fine for a cow and Rs 100 fixed per calf for everyday it spends in the shed. The department is also planning to double the fine sos that the offenders are discouraged from leaving their cattle to stray. The unclaimed cattle are driven out of the boundary of the city to nearby villages.

While an intensive drive to root out jhuggi-dwellers has been on for some time, the team has managed partial success in most sectors. Earlier, a couple of days after the drive, the jhuggis would mushroom all over the place again. This time, however, regular visits by the field workers in the area has curbed the trend and they have not returned. ''Everyday we are concentrating on a particular area and the police, too, is keen on showing them the door in the face of growing crime in the city, making our job easier,'' he says.

Also, the Administrator of HUDA, Mrs Sumita Singh, has issued orders that the land is the property of HUDA and that action will be taken against trespassers. These will be put up in all open spaces belonging to HUDA and the area will be fenced at a later stage to check the entry of migrant labour and propping up of jhuggis on these plots.