The Hindu : New Delhi News : Cattle drive fails to deliver much

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Friday, May 06, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Cattle drive fails to deliver much

Staff Reporter

Only 300 cattle impounded till the last day of court-imposed deadline

NEW DELHI: In its drive against stray cattle following last week's High Court directive, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has so far impounded over 300 head of cattle, mainly from South Delhi localities. However, the civic body is yet to launch its drive in other badly affected parts of the Capital including colonies and main roads in East, West and Outer Delhi.

During the past four days, the MCD squads accompanied by a large number of police personnel have mainly targeted illegal dairies in urban villages and resettlement colonies in South Delhi localities including Masjid Moth, Kalkaji, Govindpuri, Okhla and Sanjay Colony. Apart from Tuesday's incident where a crowd had pelted stone on the squad, the drive so far has been peaceful.

On Thursday, the MCD squad caught over 60 head of cattle from Kalkaji, Okhla and Govindpuri, while till Wednesday, the civic body had impounded over 250 stray cattle. However, the civic body employees are still to catch thousands of stray cattle, the estimated figure of which stands at 30,000.

Apart from South Delhi, other parts of Delhi particularly localities like Vikas Marg, Shahdara, Laxmi Nagar, Shakarpur and Krishna Nagar in East Delhi, villages in Outer Delhi besides Pitampura, Uttam Nagar, Tilak Nagar, Karol Bagh, R.K. Puram, Azadpur and Shalimar Bagh are also badly affected from stray cattle menace where the civic body is yet to start the drive.

In fact, it was in 2003 that the Delhi High Court had directed the Corporation to get city roads and colonies rid of stray cattle. Though the civic body had then launched a drive but it failed due to political pressure and interference. In the meantime, the MCD also bought some time from the court pleading that the problem could be solved only when around 2,800 dairies are removed and rehabilitated in some place.

Subsequently, the Delhi Government gave land to the MCD at Ghogha and asked to relocate all dairies, but still the Corporation is to establish infrastructure and relocate the illegal dairies. Experts say unless the Corporation seriously took up this project and relocate illegal dairies from residential areas, stray cattle menace would continue to affect Delhi's traffic and pose threat to citizens.

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