Admn turns blind eye to stray cattle menace

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, November 29

The stray cattle menace continues to claim innocent lives in Muktsar district, but the administration seems to have turned a blind eye towards it. A stray cattle on Wednesday night reportedly claimed lives of three Army men on the Abohar-Delhi national highway near Malout town.

In the past too, several persons have become victims of the stray cattle. However, the situation still remains same on the ground. Travel on any road in the district and one will find a number of stray cattle roaming, posing a threat to the commuters. The road travel becomes more risky in the early morning and night hours, especially when the foggy season has started.

Some residents of Gidderbaha town said that with the efforts of some social organisations, nearly 500 stray cattle were shifted to the cattle pound at Ratta Tibba village and the town was made almost free from the menace. However, the animal shifting work was stopped due to the intervention of Union Minister Maneka Gandhi, who is an animal rights activist. She had got some reports that animals were dying due to starvation at the government-run cattle pound.

In such a situation, some local residents have now appealed to the district administration to make some makeshift arrangement to save people from road mishaps during foggy season. “If the administration is not having adequate resources to run cattle pounds, then it should at least put reflector belts around the neck of stray cattle. It will minimise the number of road mishaps. Further, it is a cheaper method available, successfully tested in the past by Muktsar Municipal Council,” said Raman Kumar, a local resident.