LAHORE - Droves can be seen in many parts, exposing the City District Government’s drive to evict cattle from the city.
According to the district government, it has evicted almost all the cattle, except the pets, from the city. The administration have evicted over 20,000 droves so far while it released hundreds of impounded animals after their owners paid fine, the officials claim.
A Shalimar Town official says the town has become cattle-free as the staff cleared all the residential areas of the animals during the ongoing campaign. The officials also ousted illegally-kept animals from the CDGL boundaries, he said, adding that revenue was also generated through imposition of fine.
Another official said on the condition of anonymity that the staff hoodwinked the town administration. He said they submitted fake facts and figures to their seniors. “On the one hand, the officials claim that they are impounding hundreds of cattle while on the other, they say they are evicting dozens of cattle every day from the city boundaries, ” he said. The officials lie when they say they have achieved the target, he maintained.
“They took bribery from the cattle owners, which are still ‘impounded’ in the homes and cattle farms of the milkmen and owners instead of impounding in Kanji Houses, the official place for locking up illegally kept animals or cattle,” he added.
He alleged the officials evicted cattle of only those owners who refused to bribe them and they imposed fine on them with locking up their animals but they did not evict even a single animal or cattle owned by such influential milkmen or the person who bribed them.
He pointed out the owner have been keep their cattle in the areas of China Scheme, Daroghawala, Shadipura, Mehmood Booty, Bhogiwal, Baghbanpura, Mughalpura, Shahdra, Babu Sabu, Sherakot, Thokar Niaz Baig, Chuhng, Sabzazaar Housing Scheme Raiwind Road and Ferozpur Road. Munir Gujar, a resident of China Scheme, said the town officials never “teased him because he bribes them”. Goga Gujar, a milkman from Shahdra was reluctant to talk to this scribe. However, he said the officials of Ravi Town were the people concerned to respond to such question.
The milkmen have been raising their concern that the cattle eviction would ruin their business, compelling them to bribe the officials.
Despite repeated attempts, District Coordination Officer Noorul Amin could not be reached.