A budget of several crore allocated by Municipal Corporation of Panchkula has gone down the drain as stray cattle moving on the city roads continue to pose a serious threat for the motorists as well as the morning and evening strollers. To add more to the embarrassment of civil bodies, now the mules and mares have added to the category of animals in addition to bulls, cows, and buffaloes, doting the busy main roads passing through the cities.
According to information, not all the cattle heads and animals are abandoned but the mules and mares are learnt to be owned by slum dwellers who leave them on the streets. So is the case of cows and buffaloes who are released by the dairies operating from within the city limits. Interestingly, the city body officials also blame the officials in neighbouring cities of Zirakpur (Peer Muchalla and Baltana) and UT Chandigarh villages pushing their stray cattle into Panchkula’s territory.
Notably, Panchkula’s erstwhile Municipal Council was formed in January 2000 and even after twenty-four years the problem of stray cattle remains unsolved.
‘The issue is being debated for years now.’ Remarks S K Nayyar, a resident activist, who keeps on highlighting these civil issues. He minced no words in elaborating upon the incidents wherein road accidents involving stray cattle have caused serious causalities.
‘I have to travel to Chandigarh everyday and there was a time where I had to encounter a group of mares and mules at every Panchkula roundabout’ said Anju, a Sector 9 resident, who claimed of hitting her car against a bull.
Meanwhile when contacted Panchkula Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal, he denied the presence of mules and ponies straying on the main roads of the roundabouts, even as The Daily Guardian have seen the mules and ponies grazing and straying near the office of civil bodies in Sector-14, Panchkula.
Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal however claimed that civil bodies are in process to float tenders worth Rs. 1.2 crores to deal with this menace.