MC fails to decide on animal pounds

LUDHIANA: While the problem of stray animals has been troubling residents, municipal corporation authorities are unable to decide whether there should hand the work for this to gaushalas (cow shelters) in the city.
This is in spite of gaushala owners at Hambran Road being ready to take complete responsibility of handling the cattle menace. They say they are ready to lift the stray animals from city roads but want assurance that MC would pay, as earlier also, it had not provided the money.
"It will take us two months to clear the roads of stray cattle.We had done that earlier, but after making three payments, MC denied us the money," said Satish Gupta from gaushala on Hambran Road. "There are 1,700 cows in our shelter and we have selected another 13 acres for more stray animals and would immediately start the work," he added.
Mayor Hakam Singh Guaspura said that they would definitely deal with the menace as they were going to conduct a meeting with gaushala owners on Wednesday. A six-year-old child had lost his life after he got caught in a fight between two bulls on April 24.
That incident had got the civic body to start acting to deal with the problem, but now, it has again forgotten that. The condition of the city is such that stray animals can be seen roaming everywhere and authorities are unable to deal with the problem. Since the closure of MC's cattle pound, there is no space for stray animals in the city. Gaushalas in the city they are unable to provide shelter to all the stray cattle. The cattle can be seen on Hambran Road, Kailash Cinema Chowk, Civil Lines, College Road, Mall Road and even in front of the municipal commissioner's residence.
Sources revealed that Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) had sought a report from the deputy commissioner and MC in December 2009 regarding the problem and asked them to deal strictly with it, but even then, the authorities did not do anything.