Mohali, January 22
As the stray cattle population shoots up here, the municipal council is frantically knocking at the door of top Local Government officials in a bid to find a solution to the worsening crisis of animal disposal.
The civic body has asked the Local Government officials to issue the necessary guidelines as to where the stray animals, caught by the council staff, are to be released.
The civic body at present has a small cattle pound adjoining a municipal store in the Industrial Area where not more than 15 to 20 animals can be kept at a time while the number of stray cattle in the town is estimated to run into hundreds. One comes across such animals on the main roads as well as on inner ones, leading not only to traffic problems but also fatal accidents.
The council president, Mr Kulwant Singh, has now written a demi-official letter to the Principal Secretary, Local Government, Punjab, drawing his attention to the fact that the civic body had written several letters to the PUDA authorities over the past three years for allotting land for a cattle pound, but no final decision in this regard had been taken by PUDA so far.
In the letter, the president stated that it was the duty of PUDA to provide basic facilities to the town’s residents. He said if PUDA caused any further delay in the allotment of land for the cattle pound, either free of cost or at a nominal price, there was a possibility that a contempt petition could be filed. Two civil writ petitions had been preferred in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in this connection following which directions were given by the court in December last year to PUDA to allot land for the purpose at a lower price.
He urged the Principal Secretary in the letter dated January 12 to take personal interest in the matter and press the PUDA authorities to allot the land.
Two days later, on January 14, the council president also wrote to two other senior officials — Director and Ludhiana-based Deputy Director, Local Government, Punjab — in connection with the problem. He informed them that PUDA had been already requested through a letter on December 30, 2003 to allot the land. He said the municipal council had at its meeting on January 6 sought the issuance of government guidelines on where the impounded stray cattle should be released, and requested the government to take action in accordance with the council resolution.
The problem of catching such a large number of animals and keeping them in a proper pound or despatching them to another area has been
plaguing the council for years. The council’s proposal to buy a cattle-catcher van at a cost of Rs 7 lakh drew a prompt objection from the Director of the Local Government. The general house of the civic body had cleared the proposal to buy a cattle-catcher van in July, 2002, in view of the difficulties faced by the staff on duty and frequent injuries to animals and employees during loading into and unloading from other types of vehicles.
The council had approached PUDA for the allotment of land for setting up a cattle pound several times but the price quoted by the latter was, in the civic body’s view, unjustified and exorbitant.
