Gujarat: Cattle seizure ops turn violent, Gandhinagar’s civic body seeks SRP help

The GMC, meanwhile, also decided to form a Cattle Nuisance and Control Department (CNCD) of its own. To begin with, the CNCD will be set up with a team of 15 members. This apart, the civic body has also decided to purchase another cattle-impounding vehicle. At present, the GMC has only one vehicle for the purpose.

At present, the district’s fire department is doing the task of impounding stray cattle besides doing other municipal activities. “A request letter for deployment of an SRP company has been sent to the superintendent of police on Saturday. Unlike Ahmedabad and Surat municipal corporations, where two SRP companies each have been deployed to help in impounding stray cattle, Gandhinagar has none. We have realised that Gandhinagar municipal corporation also needs protection during the drive against stray cattle and thus demanded for the SRP,” S K Langa, Gandhinagar collector and GMC commissioner in-charge, told The Indian Express.

From the SP office, the request will be forwarded to the director general of police (DGP) office for approval , Langa said.

Confirming the request, SP (in-charge) Kishor Baloliya said, “The request from GMC was sent to our office on Saturday. We have limited staff and hence this cannot be addressed immediately. Hopefully, a decision will be taken this week.” Police force in Gandhinagar is busy in providing security to VIPs who live in the state capital, and this is the reason the civic body despite repeated requests has failed to get police cover during cattle impounding drives.

“Apart from the SRP, request for a dedicated police force during the drives was also raised in the past,” added Langa.

In 2014, GMC had issued a notification, imposing a ban on cow rearing within its jurisdiction. As per the notification, the civic body can penalise anyone caught rearing cattle at their residences, including private plots, sections of houses or government land. Not only cattle, it also applies to goats, donkeys, sheep, horse and buffaloes, the notification stated.

GMC’s standing committee chairman Devendrasinh Chavada said, “The municipal corporation team catches the cattle but when these are taken to be dropped to the cow shelters, the cattle owners intercept the civic body officials. They take advantage of the staff shortage in the police department.”

Citing the recent incident in Ahmedabad where civic body officials impounded 150 stray cattle under police supervision, deputy mayor Manubhai Patel said that this would only be possible with the help of huge police force.

The CNCD team of Ahmedabad civic body was attacked during the drive. Following this, the AMC had deployed the entire 12 teams of CNCD comprising around 150 members, along with 150 SRP personnel apart from 100 policemen.