KMC to take police help to shift cow sheds outside city limits
Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is asking police to take steps to remove all cattle shelters from the city.
Mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday said such shelters cannot exist in the heart of the city. There is a court order to this effect. He received a complaint from a citizen of ward 15 that a cattle shelter in the ward has led to an increase in dengue. Due to the unhygienic environment at the cow shed, several residents have contracted vector borne disease.
Hakim assured that he would take up the matter with the Kolkata Police’s cattle division at Lalbazar. The Mayor said that the Animal Resources Development department has space in Dankuni where the cattle are shifted from the city. It’s a temporary provision from where it further shifted to
rural areas.
An official said that cow sheds within the city are not just leading to massive waste generation but are also drawing mosquitoes. Even as KMC, over the years, shifted several of such cow sheds outside the city many are still functioning from within KMC area limits.
Most of these cow sheds within the city are located in areas of Tangra, Tiljala and Mukundapur. On several occasions, KMC workers had to face threats from the owners when asked to shift them outside. In such a context, the mayor has decided to seek help from Kolkata Police to shift all such cow sheds outside the city.
The mayor also has received complaints that despite serving notices to the cow shed owners to ensure cleanliness in the immediate surrounding areas, no steps were taken. Hakim said he will be writing to the Kolkata Police Commissioner soon. He said that a survey will be done first to see how many cows are inside these sheds and then accordingly measures will be taken to shift them
outside the city.
Further, it was learnt that cow sheds are also clogging the drainage facility within the city and which is leading to waterlogging after a heavy downpour. Such an instance has been observed at Tiljala Road. KMC will soon send notices to the owners of such cow sheds.
