Farmers’ bid to leave 400 stray cattle thwarted

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 18

The district administration had to face the wrath of farmers, led by Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal), as they attempted to enter the city to leave 400 stray cattle from villages here on Tuesday. They were stopped at the Partappura Grain market and told to divert 50 trolleys towards cow shelters.

The farmers, who had come to leave the animals outside the District Administrative Complex, said they would neither take them back nor drop them at cow shelters. They were adamant on going to the DC office and said if they wanted the animals to be moved to cow shelters, the administration should arrange for their own vehicles.

At the insistence of the farmers, the administration had to immediately arrange 40 trucks, get the animals shifted to their vehicles and take them to various cow shelters in the city, urging them to take more animals. As farmers were being led by BKU (Lakhowal) district president Jaswant Singh Singhpura, officials from the administration, included ADC Jasbir Singh, SP Balkar Singh, ADCP Parminder S Bhandal and others.

Union chief Jaswant Singh said stray animals were causing a huge loss to standing crops and the administration was paying no attention to their problem despite repeated requests. He said the administration had already been notified about the protest on February 4 and had given the February 17 deadline to deal with the problem. “The Local Bodies Department has been charging cow cess from the residents but providing no relief to them”, said union leaders Harminder Singh Khehra, Harjit Singh, Sukhjeevan Singh, Major S Gill, Sony Sandhu, Sukhchain S Bhangu, Kuldeep S Bhillar and Satbir Singh.