Bhubaneswar: Commuters and motorists continue to face inconvenience on most roads in the city due to stray cattle being left unattended by their owners, causing traffic chaos and frequent accidents.
Cattle are found roaming in different parts of the city, including Raghunathpur, Patia, Sailashree Vihar, Niladri Vihar, Lumbini Vihar, Gadakana, Damana, Saheed Nagar, Bapuji Nagar and Bomikhal, among others.
Commuters said at many times, cattle occupy the middle of the road causing traffic congestion in these localities. They said this situation has created a road safety threat for them.
“It is absolute chaos on the roads due to the presence of the animals. One would presume that Bhubaneswar is a rural area rather than state capital. The city authorities must act responsibly to tackle the issue,” Saheed Nagar resident Banamali Jena said.
Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been issuing repeated warnings to the cattle owners that if they let their animals unattended on the roads, they would catch them and not return them again.
However, the warnings seem to have no effect on the cattle owners and alleged lack of proper enforcement by the civic body has left residents and commuters at the receiving end of the menace.
“We are carrying out regular enforcement drives and seizing cattle from different parts of the city. They have been taken to the kine house in Jamukoli and have not been returned to their owners again,” BMC mayor Sulochana Das said.
The mayor’s assurance, however, seems to contradict the reality on the ground. “It is not at all acceptable for the civic authorities to turn a blind eye to the reality. If enforcement has been so extensive, we wouldn’t have found cattle roaming on the roads,” Patia resident Rohit Agrawal said.
Agrawal, a corporate employee, claimed the cattle roaming on the city roads are not actually stray but are domesticated animals. “It seems the BMC is lifting stray cattle but the problem is with the domesticated animals being left unattended,” he said.
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