Strict anti-cattle move gathers dust

Corporators, both from ruling and opposition sides, remain apathetic towards stray cattle menace that


human life and disrupt traffic in almost all parts of city. A senior NMC official said,
"Since last four general body meetings over a six month period, the proposal to raise the fine for impounded stray cattle to Rs 5000 has been on the agenda, but neither individual corporators nor the house is ready to take it up."

The official said corporators appear under pressure of cattle-owners' lobby. "Whenever our staffers catch any stray cattle, the corporators force us to release them. Many times our staffers were manhandled while some received threats and warnings of dire consequences if they catch stray animals from particular areas," he complained. Under the Cattle Trespass Act, only the civic house is empowered to create special pounds and remove stray animals from roads.

The NMC health department claimed that since January this year, it has caught 2,978 stray animals, an average of over 200 every month, and recovered a fine of Rs 8.45 lakh from the owners. The officials further claimed that they have trapped almost 428 monkeys, especially from the areas of Bharat Nagar, Gorewada, Amravati Road at Ravi Nagar paying Rs 1400 on every catch to private monkey trapper. This does not seem adequate though as stray animals and pigs continue to have free run of the city. TOI has for long raised the issue of danger being posed by stray cattle, dogs and pigs on city roads.

"Exactly six months back, the NMC health department decided to act tough against cattle owners by imposing a hefty fine of Rs 5,000 for every animal caught. The NMC standing committee approved the proposal and forwarded it to the general body for approval," said the official, "Unless the general body approves it, it cannot be implemented."

Under the proposed regime, freeing stray animals like bulls, cows, calf, horse etc from cattle pounds will attract a fine of Rs 5000. For elephants it will be Rs 10,000, for camels Rs 7500, and for pigs Rs 1500.

The fine will include cattle pound fine, administration fine, registration charges, licence and affidavit charges and other charges.