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AAP blames Delhi civic bodies for failing to keep stray cattle in check
AAP spokesperson said illegal dairies are functioning in Delhi under the protection of BJP functionaries and people can find stray cows “on roads and near dumpsters anywhere in the city”. BJP dismissed the claims
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj on Friday blamed the three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led municipal corporations for failing to control the “stray cattle menace in the city over the last 15 years”. The BJP, however, dismissed the claims as “cheap politics”.
Bharadwaj said that illegal dairies are functioning in Delhi under the protection of BJP functionaries and people can find stray cows “on roads and near dumpsters anywhere in the city”. “If you visit the garbage dumps in any locality in Delhi, you will see cows trying to find food in discarded polythene bags. The polythene chokes their insides,” he said.
The AAP spokesperson alleged that the numbers of stray animals have only increased over the last three-four years.
He further claimed that stray cattle cause at least 250 road accidents in the city each month. “These stray cows are milked and then released back to wander across the city. This is an organised gang who exploit cows,” Bharadwaj alleged.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor dismissed Bharadwaj’s charges.
He said, “No doubt we can see cows around garbage dhalaos or sitting on roads, often becoming the cause of road accidents but holding MCDs alone responsible for this or calling it a case of corruption by MCD leaders is proof of AAP’s dirty politics. Bharadwaj said that Delhi has a cow mafia... Bharadwaj himself lives in Chirag Delhi village and the Zamrudpur village, where dozens of people keep cows and there are several dairies too, is in his constituency. Does he feel that these too are being run by any mafia under municipal patronage? And has he as an MLA complained against this mafia to get these diaries shut?”
Noting that most stray cattle belong to private dairy owners, Kapoor said the solution lies in shifting dairies to outer areas.
Delhi will go to the civic polls early next year.
