NMC panel moots a minor hike on erring stray cattle owners
Stray Cattle on the road in Sadar area on Mount Road
Nagpur: The NMC’s stray cattle catching squad seems to be in deep slumber. On almost every major square or important roads including WHC road, large herd of cattle can be seen standing and blocking the smooth flow of road traffic.
Many of them defecate on the roads causing the already slippery roads with rain-water more slippery especially for the two-wheeler riders.
Well, the traffic cops can’t shoo them away because it is not their duty. It is time that NMC takes serious cognizance of stray cattle on the roads. All the special drive to free residential areas of stray cattle proved to be an act in futility. All the impounded heads of cattle are returned to the owners for a few hundreds and the cattle is back on the roads.
Negligible hike on erring stray cattle owners by NMC panel
Probably under the compulsions of not displeasing their vote bank, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation is set to drastically scale down the proposed hike in penalty to be imposed on stray cattle owners. Refuting the proposal to hike the fine by almost 13 times, a four-member committee of Corporators from the Standing Committee has reduced the penalty to mere two times.
The committee had suggested hiking the fine from Rs 550 to Rs 1,100 to be slapped on cow or horse owners as against the earlier proposal of Rs 5,000. Now, the panel’s proposal will be tabled before the standing committee for its nod.
Cattle on the road
On May 13, 2016 the NMC’s health department had proposed a massive hike in fine for violation. As per the proposal, the highest hike in penalty was for calf, from Rs 24 earlier to Rs 2,500. Similarly, fine for an elephant and cow was proposed to be increased to Rs 10,000 from the earlier Rs 1,828, while the penalty for stray cattle was to be hiked to Rs 5,000 as against the present Rs 550.
By Samuel Gunasekharan.
Pics by Roshan Singh.
