Dying like cattle is not a proverb here

new delhi: our go-mata is probably never so endangered as in the capital. the chances of stray cattle, caught and shoved into the official cow shelters (go sadans), surviving the ordeal seems rather slim. consider: of 38,738 stray cattle brought to these cow shelters between january, 1995 and september, 1999, as many as 29,905 died. this startling revelation comes in a report of a committee which specially went into the working of the seven cow shelters in the capital.all these are run by non-governmental organisations. the committee says the actual death rate may be even higher. worse, there seems to a financial scam going on in the name of running the shelters. in view of this, the delhi government has now decided to close them. the committee, sources said, failed to find any record of over rs 2 crore granted by the government for running the shelters. its report says the ngos were not maintaining proper accounts, not did they have audited balance sheets, income and expenditure registers, fodder stock registers, and so on. ``no one seems to have a clue where the money was going,'' one of the seven members of the committee said. the delhi government plans to institute an inquiry into all this. the shelters do not have proper records of cattle sent to them by mcd (which does the rounding up) or their release. the high mortality is due to lack of medical facilities and food. except one, no other cow shelter has a veterinary hospital, which is mandatory under the law. the shelters are a burden on the exchequer, chief minister sheila dikshit said and added: ``it seems the cattle were better off on the street than in these shelters. we don't want to convert this into a political controversy but have decided to close them.'' the committee was set up last year after several congress mlas expressed concern in the state assembly about the condition of the shelters. they also alleged financial irregularities in their functioning. the scheme to start cow shelters, managed by ngos, was launched in 1995 by the bjp government. a total of 251 acres was allotted to seven ngos for this purpose at a nominal fee of re 1 per annum per acre. the scheme enjoined upon the ngos to use half the land for growing fodder. instead, grain was grown there for profit, the committee says. the ngos were also flouting norms for release of cattle. cattle were released even on the recommendations of mlas and corporators. the rule is that the release can be made only on an order of a municipal magistrate. ``the released animal went back straight to the roads from where it was picked up,'' the report states. the government has now decided to revert back to the old system of cattle pounds maintained by mcd. stray cattle from these pounds were shifted to the government-run cow shelters if not released within a week.