Cattle menace: Action against owners for repeat offences

VADODRA: For the first time, Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has prepared a list of persons whose cattle was caught on the streets frequently. The civic body has forwarded the list to the police seeking action against such persons.
The cattle teams that are formed jointly by the VMC as well as the city police impound cattle found on the streets of the city.These cattle are then freed by taking various charges from the owners. The charges were increased threefold in 2012, but the cattle continued to stay on the streets.
The civic body has prepared a list of six cattle owners whose cattle were caught repeatedly in 2014-15. The list was drawn on the basis of the persons, who came to the civic body repeatedly to get the cattle freed claiming the animals to be theirs and offences were registered against them.
The list is topped by Janaksinh Mahida of Rajmahal Road against whom 13 offences were registered at different police stations. He is followed by Govind Bharwad of Fatehgunj against whom 10 such offences have been registered and Kanu Bharwad, also from Fatehgunj, against whom eight cases were registered.
It is surprising that the cattle owned by persons against whom multiple offences were registered were found across the city. Mahida has cases registered against himself at Gorwa, Navapura, Makarpura, City, J P Road, Karelibaug and Wadi police stations. Govind has offences registered against him at Fatehgunj, Gorwa and Panigate police stations while Kanu has offences registered against him at the Fatehgunj and Panigate police stations.
VMC officials said that one of the major reasons for multiple offences being registered against some persons was that they used to own up other person’s cattle too. “They have become like agents who do not mind offences being registered against them,” said an official.