No headway in project to install micro-chips in cattle

Ludhiana: The project to install micro-chips in cattle at dairy units seems to be a far distant dream as officials are showing no inclination of taking up the project again. The members of the finance and contracts committee (F&CC) had kept the proposal pending over financial reasons and it was supposed to be taken up later, but still there had been no headway in this project.
It was conceived to keep a check on dairy owners from leaving their cattle abandoned, which gave rise to the problem of stray cattle. In a way it was an attempt to start registration of cattle at dairy units and it was supposed to start from Tajpur road dairy complex.
It was in September last year that it was proposed to install 20,000 micro-chips in the cattle at dairy units, along with the registration process. The proposal was kept in front of F&CC members in November 2019, but the members rejected the same. The officials claimed that cost of one micro-chip was a minimum Rs 250 and in dairy units farmers had many cattle, so they were not ready to bear the cost and the civic body was not in a condition to pay for the micro-chips. For these reasons only it could not be taken up again.
The senior veterinary officer, Dr YP Singh, said the F&CC members had objected to the bearing of the cost of the micro-chip that was supposed to be inserted in the cattle. He said neither dairy owners, nor the MC is willing to take the financial load and so it would not be possible to take up the project again.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Sanjay Talwar, who had taken up the project, claimed that this was supposed to be approved by the civic body but it was rejected on certain grounds. He said he would take up the project again with mayor Balkar Sandhu because the problem of stray cattle is becoming a serious threat to the public. He said in his constituency too people were facing the serious problem of stray cattle.
Requesting anonymity, one of the dairy owners from Tajpur road said they could not bear the expenses of micro-chips and if the civic body wants to install these then they should bear the cost. He claimed that already there were several other issues for them to tackle and this would be an additional burden on them.
However, the number of stray cattle was rising in the city gradually in the absence of their lifting from city roads. As of now the lifting of cattle has stopped as there is no place in cow sheds to keep more stray cattle. The cattle shed in Burj Pawat near Machhiwara is also ready but the civic officials are yet to start the lifting process.