In view of widespread allegations that some staff of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) are lifting stray cattle from the city and selling them to butchers outside, the Odisha High Court has directed the civic body to maintain a record of stray cattle picked up and hand them over to a city-based voluntary organisation working for prevention of cruelty to animals.
In an interim order passed last week in response to a PIl filed by the same organisation, a Division Bench of the HC also asked the CMC to make funds available to the voluntary organisation, Biswa Go-Suraksha Vahini, for maintenance of the picked-up stray cattle.
The Jagatpur-based organisation had filed the PIl stating that taking undue advantage of an order passed by the High Court in September 2013, in which the CMC was asked to remove stray cattle from the city roads, some CMC employees after picking up the cattle are transporting them in a dangerous manner to places like Adaspur and Bhadrak in the State and to Kolkata, where the cattle are sold to butchers.
Taking strong exceptions to the allegations, the High Court directed the CMC authorities to comply with its fresh orders scrupulously, failing which appropriate proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act would be taken. The court also asked the CMC to file a compliance affidavit within two weeks.
The Municipal Commissioner was also asked to file an affidavit stating as to how many kine houses and Goshalas are operating in the city and what their statuses are.
“The Municipal Commissioner shall also consider the steps it (CMC) can take for registry and identifying of all animals including cattle, dogs and all pets for the purpose of licensing and for compliance of vaccination,” the court said in its interim order fixing the matter to be heard again after two weeks.