Crores spent on cowsheds, no end to stray menace in Panchkula

Amit Bathla

Panchkula, January 19

The local Municipal Corporation, led by the BJP-JJP, spent crores on new cattle sheds, but the city becoming free of strays is still a distant dream.

After opening a cowshed in Sukhdarshanpur, built at a cost of over Rs5 crore last year, Haryana Speaker and local MLA Gian Chand Gupta recently laid the foundation for the construction of another cattle shed at Kot village, which will be called ‘nandishala’.

It will be built on around 9 acres at a cost of Rs2.5 crore and could accommodate nearly 1,000 head of cattle. Both the MLA and Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal termed the occasion “a new beginning” to address the menace of stray cattle in the city.

Similar claims were made during the inauguration of the cowshed at Sukhdarshanpur village, but the stray cattle menace continues to persist.

“Though there are 12 cow shelters across the district, only “nandis” or stray male bovines will be kept at the nandishala,” said Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal while defending the rationale to open another cowshed.

According to Goyal, since January last year, the MC has shifted around 1,200 head of stray cattle to various cow shelters across the city, including the Sukhdarshanpur cowshed and Mata Mansa Devi Gaushala. However, residents said the civic body needed to look beyond raising the number of gaushalas.

“The strategy doesn’t seem to be working so far. At least the results are not visible on the ground. Stray cattle still roam the streets. Their presence at garbage bins searching for food is a common sight in the district. It is just a plan to benefit trusts running the cowsheds,” said Rakesh Aggarwal, a resident of Sector 12.

It may be mentioned that civic body had last year announced a financial assistance of Rs3 lakh per month to Madhav Gaushala Charitable Trust, which runs the Sukhdarshanpur cowshed. To upgrade machinery, the civic body had also announced to purchase two cattle catchers worth Rs43.71 lakh.

Clearly, the spending is just on the rise.

What Mayor had promised

• More than a year ago, while contesting the civic body elections, Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal, the BJP candidate, had promised to make the city cattle free within six months of being voted to power.
• Subsequently, a resolution was passed in the first meeting of the MC General House to make Panchkula free of stray cattle by March 2021.