Residents see red over swine menace

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 17

The residents in Inderpuri and Kot Khalsa are a harried lot due to presence of pigs in large numbers in the area. They say pigs roaming in the streets and vacant plots are a nuisance. Apart from scattering garbage from dumps, the swines sometimes attack children.

Jaswant Singh, a local activist, said, “I visited the MC office and requested the officials concerned to take action. I have also mentioned about the swine flu deaths in the written complaint.”

According to the complainant, some people involved in pig farming leave the animals in the streets instead of providing them feed in their enclosure.

MC health officials had sent a team to Inderpuri last year to catch pigs, but pig farmers raised hue and cry and promised to keep the pigs at their farms. But there has been no change in the situation, say residents.

Jaswant Singh said, “After receiving several complaints, an MC team visited the area once but did not catch pigs. More than 500 swines create a mess in the area. These sometimes attack children. The MC should take the animals away and issue challans to owners.”

“The swine number has been increasing day by day. The health wing should take strict action and catch the pigs roaming in the streets,” said Anil Kumar, a resident of Kot Khalsa.

Municipal Health Officer Dr Ajay Kanwar assured them of necessary action within one week.