Ludhiana: No end to menace in sight, farmers reach DC office with 750 stray cattle

The farmers, from Kohara, Samrala and Jagraon areas, owing allegiance to Bharti Kisan Union (Lakhowal) claimed that they had informed the Ludhiana DC a week ago that they will leave the stray cattle at his office if some urgent steps were not taken to contain the menace.

The farmers were first stopped by the local police near Kohara on Ludhiana-Chandigarh road. The officials said that the SDM would be coming soon to meet them.

“But SDM did not come. So we marched ahead and reached near Jamalpur, where we were stopped yet again by putting up barricades. There were minimum five cattle in each vehicle and we had 150 vehicles,” said Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, president BKU(L).

Lakhowal said that most of the bovines were non-milking cows, calves and some bulls. “They enter in large groups in our fields and damage the crop. We pay the cow cess and we want a permanent solution to the stray cattle problem,” he added.

The farmers claimed that all the stray cattle were of the Holstein Friesian (HF) breed, not native to India. “These cows become sterile after three pregnancies and stop giving milk due to which dairy farmers leave them on roads,” a protesting farmer said.

DC Pardeep Aggarwal said, “Most local bodies are collecting cow cess and have tied up with existing gaushalas where they have entered into agreement to pay per day per animal.

Government has also got one government gaushala in each district where capacity is being increased gradually.”

Lakhowal, however, said,”Administration keeps making tall promises. They should take care of the animals as they ollect the cow cess. If we go to gaushalas, they charge us money for leaving the animals there.”

Meanwhile, some of the farmers managed to reach the DC office at Mini secretariat with the cattle, However, they were rounded up by police and taken to Jamalpur police station. The detained farmers were freed late in the evening, said Lakhowal.

Farmers released the stray cattle in the open ground of Punjab Urban Development Authority ( PUDA) located adjacent to Jamalpur area where they were stopped. The administration later made arrangements to lift the cattle and take them to various gaushalas.

Members of the union later said they will be now leaving the stray cattle outside DC offices in respective districts. On Friday, they will take the campaign to Faridkot

In September last year, Punjab government had announced a five-member cabinet sub-committee to check the menace of stray cattle. It had also announced Rs 10 lakh each to the DCs for opening an additional gaushala in their respective districts to address the problem.

The committee, headed by Animal Husbandry Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, has Vijay Inder Singla (PWD), Brahm Mahindra (local government), Balbir Singh Sidhu (health)and Sunder Sham Arora (industries) as members.

The government had then estimated the number of stray animals at 2.50 lakh.