Stray cattle still crowding roads, Uttar Pradesh govt issues fresh notice to local bodies asking to build temporary shelters

Lucknow: The Department of Animal Husbandry on Tuesday issued a fresh notice to Uttar Pradesh authorities to build temporary shelters for stray cattle in all the districts of the state.

The order was issued after the local authorities allegedly failed to complete the relocation of stray cattle to shelter homes after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered them to complete the task by 10 January.

On 2 January, the chief minister had given the local authorities a week to ensure that all the stray cattle across the state are shifted to shelters accompanied by veterinary care and fences.

The directive followed a recent state government decision to levy a 0.5 percent cow welfare cess on some public sector undertakings to help construct and maintain more cow shelters.

“Stray cattle sometimes become a reason for road accidents in urban areas. They also destroy crops in rural areas and can create law and order issues. All DMs should therefore take necessary action so that such issues do not happen,” Adityanath had said during the video conference.

The new order has been issued to all the additional chief secretaries, heads of mandalis, district magistrates, director generals of police, senior superintendent or superintendent of police, the municipal commissioner and to all district panchayats.