After the allegations of unsanitary conditions and subsequent deaths of cattle in Kanji House situated in Kedarpuram, the cattle from there are proposed to be shifted to a new Gau-Sadan to be set up in Selaqui.
The new facility will have the capacity for holding about 2,000 cattle at a time. According to Dehradun municipal commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey, the cattle will be shifted there in about a week on temporary basis. Pandey said, “We went to see the site in Selaqui. We might shift the cattle from Kanji House to Selaqui in a week’s time. At present 435 cattle are living in Kanji House.”
He further added, “There is a proposed plan of tagging all cattle with micro chips so that they can later be identified and responsibility and penalty on the owner can be ensured.
For the micro chips, we will first speak with our specialist and weigh out the pros and cons. If it appears to be helpful, we will forward the proposal to administration.”
According to the sources, for the Gau Sadan in Selaqui, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has directed chief city health officer Dr Kailash Joshi to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR).
This Gau Sadan is proposed to be constructed on the lines of the Mathura Gau Sadan in Uttar Pradesh, which is deemed to be the finest such facility in the country. It will have dairy facilities, veterinary hospital, tube-well and will be made under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
A senior officer from MCD on the condition of anonymity said, “Kanji House does not have the capacity to keep more that 100 cattle at a time. Most of the cattle that come here are not in good health, so sometimes four cattle die in a day and sometimes for weeks there is no death.
Up to 30 deaths in a month is normal. However, in Kanji House at present 435 cattle are living, which obviously resulted in lack of space and management, unhygienic condition and poor resources of water and food. Most of the times when there was some VIP fleet movement and the administration wanted stray cattle to be shifted from there, we brought them to Kanji House, where else could we shift them?” It is pertinent to mention here that it is the responsibility of MCD to take the dead animals, properly dispose their carcasses, to keep the stray animals off streets and sterilise dogs.
However, limited capacity of Kanji House resulted in about 10,000 stray cattle inside the municipal boundaries and the poor condition of cattle at the shelter resulted in a fiasco.
After this, the CM through Mayor Sunil Uniyal Gama directed a probe in the matter which Pandey will be supervising. In this investigation, the number of deaths inside Kanji House will be investigated along with the cause of their deaths. Dehradun District Magistrate C Ravishankar had also issued orders for investigation in the matter with the report sought within 15 days.