STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Division Bench of the State High Court comprising Chief Justice Bader Durrez Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Kumar on Wednesday directed Deputy Commissioner, Jammu to identify alternate land for construction of a cattle pound for stray animals in Jammu within a period of two weeks from today as the counsel appearing for JMC Sachin Gupta apprised the Division Bench that the land measuring 100 Kanals earlier identified at Village Keran (Bantalab) Jammu was not found suitable for cattle pound for want of approach road.
The court direction came in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by NGO Save Animal Value Environment through its Chairperson Devinder Kaur Madaan alias Rumpy Madaan seeking closure of 59 illegal/unregistered milk dairies running within the limits of Jammu Municipal Corporation.
Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed with Advocates Suraj Singh and Supriya Chouhan appearing for the petitioner drew the attention of the Division Bench to the Action Plan filed by the Jammu Municipal Corporation in terms of order dated February 9, 2018.
Advocate S.S. Ahmed further submitted that a week’s time had been allowed to the JMC to take over the possession of 100 kanals of land from Revenue Department for construction of cattle pound at Keran (Bantalab) Jammu but the needful has not been done. Advocate S.S. Ahmed further submitted that JMC had also been directed to come up with a comprehensive plan for tagging of stray cattle and also with a report with regard to the inspections made by them in connection of tagging of cattle in registered dairies.
Advocate S.S Ahmed further submitted that the JMC is procuring different coloured/sized tags along with other accessories for different category of stray animals and Advocate Ahmed laid emphasis on RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) which is a modern technology used in various states and these tags are injected causing no infection/cruelty to the animals.
Advocate S.S. Ahmed further submitted that the methodology proposed by JMC is not animal friendly as similar tagging was done for horses at Katra and the same has not been found upto the mark as most of the horses were found bleeding and he laid stress upon RFID.
After considering the submissions of Advocate S.S. Ahmed the Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Bader Durrez Ahmed in the open court directed the Jammu Municipal Corporation to explore the possibility of Radio Frequency Identification Device.
The Division Bench also directed Advocate S.S. Ahmed to come up with his suggestions to the Action Plan filed by the Jammu Municipal Corporation pursuant to the directions issued by the Division Bench on February, 9, 2018.
