BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday warned cattle owners of strict action if the bovine are found moving on the streets.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Abanikant Patnaik, who convened a meeting on cattle welfare programme in the city, said if a cattle is found roaming on the city’s streets it will be immediately taken to Kanjia Huda, a transit shed, and its owner will have to pay `5,000 fine for its release.
This, however, will be allowed only once. In the second instance the cattle will be handed over to a Self Help Group (SHG) of a neighbouring district for diary farming, he said.
BMC Deputy Commissioner for Animal Birth Control Shyama Sundar Sethi said the move is aimed at checking the stray cattle menace in the city. Cattle tagging drive carried out in the city from last year will be helpful in implementing the move, he added.
Sources said the move was necessitated as the rules framed earlier didn’t yield desired results. Previously, the penalty on cattle owner was `1,000 in first instance.
Sources in Fisheries and Animal Resources Development (F&ARD) department said the city has over 12,000 domestic cattle. However, most of the time these cattle are found roaming on the streets causing traffic chaos. Under its cattle tagging drive, the civic body is also fixing a soft plastic tag with a number to the ears of cattle to identify its owner.