Photo Source: Babushahi Bureau
Gurdaspur: Cattle breeders unaware of ban on cattle grazing on roads
Rohit Gupta
Gurdaspur September 8, 2023: Many cattle breeders esepcially of the 'Gujjar' community remains unaware of the ban imposed by district administration on cattle grazing on roads. This order regarding the same has been continuously issued for the last two years and again on September 1.
Subhash Chandra, PCS, Additional District Magistrate, Gurdaspur, in exercise of his powers under Section 144 of the Penal Code, 1973.
As per the order, no person within the limits of district Gurdaspur shall take his cattle for grazing on public roads or in public places nor leave them stray.
Passing this unilateral order of prohibition from September 1, 2023 to October 31, 2023, Additional District Magistrate Gurdaspur said that it has come to his notice that some people graze their cattle openly on roads and in public places, due to which Roads are prone to accidents and disruption to normal traffic. Moreover, whenever animals are left loose on the roads, these animals often become unruly and harm passers-by. Apart from this, animals also devastate the crops.
Cattle breeders can openly graze their cattle on almost every main and link road.
In raods including Dorangala Road, Mukerian Gurdaspur Road, Nawan Shala and Chava along with Pandori Road, dozens of cattle are taken by the people of Gujjar community to graze all day.
When they were asked about the administrative orders, Basiruddin, Beero, Jamal, Barkat Ali, Gauri, Masadin, Jabur etc. said that they were not aware of any such order, nor had the administrative employees ever approached them to inform them about such orders.
The cattle breeder said that they are forced to take the cattle outside in summer because they need to enter water due to their thick skin, so they leave them in the nearby rain drains or ponds.
"Grass is also very expensive so they also graze their cattle on free grass outside every day," a cattle breeder said.
Few of them admitted that they often clash with passers-by, especially with cars, but never did any police officer or government employee tell them about the ban on grazing animals.
ADC Subhash Chandra said that the responsibility of implementing the administrative orders in their respective areas lies with the heads of the respective police stations.
He added that he will asks SSP Gurdaspur to issue instructions to all the heads of police stations to take strict action in this regard.