Stray cattle menace: Maldharis demand dedicated settlement away from Rajkot city

Under the banner of Samast Bharwad Samaj Rajkot, the leaders submitted a memorandum to Patel, underlining that RMC has been making budgetary allocation for a maldhari settlement away from the city for the past few years. They said more than 40,000 cattle of maldharis have been impounded over the past 10 years and in the absence of a dedicated facility where the community can live with their livestock, clashes with teams ANCD have become a routine occurrence.

“For a permanent solution of this issue, we request that at the earliest, a maldhari settlement be developed away from the city where facilities like housing, water, education, fodder, etc are available,” read the memorandum, adding, “Surveys were conducted around the city for this purpose and the file is pending with the state government. If a resurvey is required, maldhari community is ready for that also.”

The memorandum also urged the RMC to not impound cattle from streets and lanes at night hours or when maldharis are milking their cows and buffaloes.