Cattle menace on rise as MC faces shortage of labour

Ludhiana: Residents may have to live with the menace of stray cattle for the time being as even after the completion of an additional shed at Burj Pawat cow shed in Machhiwara the municipal corporation is unable to transport cattle due to lack of adequate staff.
The officials also claim that they are yet to sign an agreement with the NGO, which is handling the maintenance of stray cattle at that cow shed. The transportation of stray cattle will also become the responsibility of the civic body for which they require staff. As of now the stray cattle lifting has been stopped in the city.
For the transportation of stray cattle the civic body has its cattle lifting van but they will require staff to catch the cattle and then transport it there. Within the city the cow sheds do not have adequate space to keep the stray cattle and the one at Govind Godham, which was lifting stray cattle for the MC, has also stopped doing the same due to paucity of space. For this reason only the problem has increased.
Meanwhile, the residents continue to face trouble due to stray cattle. Ramesh Kumar, a resident of Haibowal, complained that the stray cattle menace was not restricted to the roads only as now they had entered the residential colonies as well. He said the entry of stray cattle in residential colonies was very dangerous, especially for the children, whom they do not allow to move out.
Another resident from Civil City Gurmeet Singh said the civic body had no solution to the menace of stray cattle with the civic body as despite collecting the cow cess from the public they are not doing anything to resolve this issue. He said action was required on the dairy unit owners who leave the cattle on roads.
Senior veterinary officer Dr Y P Singh said, “The shed is ready but they are waiting for the agreement and after that they will arrange for the staff to lift the cattle from the city to be transported to Burj Pawat.