₹3.5 lakh being spent per month on pound, but stray cattle still a menace in Moga
MOGA The stray cattle menace continues in Moga even as the Punjab government has been shelling out at least ₹3.5 lakh every month to feed around 350 stray cattle at newly inaugurated cattle pound in Kishanpura village in the district.
The pound spread over 14 kanals does is not sufficient to accommodate all the stray animals roaming in the district as about 50 to 100 cattle can be seen often sitting or fighting outside the mini-secretariat here, posing risk to the lives of commuters at the Ludhiana-Ferozepur national highway.
Besides, stray cattle can be found ruminating on garbage dumps and roaming every nook and corner of the city.
With a view to curbing the stray cattle menace, the state government had constructed the cattle pound at Kishanpura with a capacity of 300 animals and five months after its inauguration, the pound now has 350 animals.
Officials said there are over 5,000 stray cattle roaming in the district, which is why it is next to impossible to accommodate all the animals.
It costs ₹1,000 per month to the government to look after a single animal, including the expenses of fodder and wheat straw.
Sources said the district authorities have been trying to take help from some non-government organisation (NGO), but so far no NGO has shown interest in taking over the pound.
They said spending lakhs of rupees every month on animals, many of which are bulls, could not generate any output due to which no NGO has been coming forward.
Malkiat Singh, chief sanitary officer at Moga municipal corporation (MC), said they have been rescuing stray cattle from roads on daily basis, but the situation is still same.
Moga animal husbandry deputy director Dr Gurmeet Singh said the problem of stray cattle is serious and the problem seems insurmountable.
“After a cow gets unproductive, farmers leave it on the roads, instead of serving it,” he said.