JMC denied land at Dili area to establish cattle pond

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, July 14: The work on Rs 5 crore plan of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) to construct cattle pond at Dili area on the outskirts of the city has been almost shelved as corporation has been denied land in the area.

According to the sources, the villagers near the site of the site have opposed the construction by saying that it is too close to residential areas. This is second time when JMC had to stop its major project owning to pressure from the people, earlier the Corporation had planned the pound at Bajalta were it had acquired 80 kanals, but the locals have moved to the Court forcing the Corporation to move to Dili area near Kunjwani. 

At present Jammu have only two cattle pounds at Rehari and Gandhi Nagar with a capacity of 15 and 20 cattle respectively and the new facility was to provide shelter to 1000 animals.

Sources said that the officials have begun new exercise to identify fresh land for the construction of the facility, which could further raise the construction cost of the project.

“It is too close to residential area and we will not allow it, it will create problem for us”, said Arif Khan, a local.

When contacted, Commissioner JMC, S.C Sawhney said, “We have no land in the area and till we get that project cannot be started”.

He said that they have taken up the matter with the government and things will get sort out in near future.

However sources said that officials are also thinking of shelving the project for time being which mean that people in the temple town will get no respite from the menace of stray cattle in immediate future.

On an average the JMC catches nearly 10 stray cattle on daily and impounded cattle are auctioned thrice a month and in case the claimants don’t come the cattle are either handed over to NGOs or released into forest areas. These unclaimed and unsold animals are released near forest at Jajjar Kotli, Samba Rakh, Purmandal and Akhnoor.