Cows as mobile dairies: the scourge of Patna and Bihar town traffic!
Patna: in a latest move, the Patna high court has directed Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) to rid the city streets of stray dogs and cattle for smooth traffic movement. Following this Justice T. Meena Kumari and Justice Vikash Jain have also asked the PMC to submit a report giving details of the total number of illegal khatals [cowsheds] in the state capital within two weeks. On the other hand PMC counsel Bishwa Bibhuti Singh claimed that the corporation had not given license to any of the khatals being run in the city.
So the question one may ask is – exactly what is going on?
First of all, the citizens of Patna and other Bihar towns need to find a definition for ‘stray animals’. Putting cows, buffaloes, donkeys and dogs without owners in the same category is not much help. When you sight a knot of stray cows forming a traffic island, typically close to B N College, these are not strays in the same sense as the dogs sleeping peacefully on the pavements. Disturb the cows and the owners will come running from across the road and punish you with harsh words and even a punch or two.
A regular sight in many parts of the city is temporary wayside dairies crowded by owners, animals and customers with vessels. These do not disturb the thin traffic much in the morning. But the same parade is repeated during the evening when the permanent dairies strategically choose a neighbourhood of Sudha milk booths and start a brisk business that could go on for hours. After depositing large chunks of dung the animals are walked home through the swirling traffic and a series of near-accidents.
The whole sight is idyllic, reminding you nostalgically of daily life in the village – except Patna has no space for such exhibition. In posh areas like Chhajjubag that enjoy the luxury of wide footpaths running along wide roads, the telltale heaps of dung force you down the road and the pedestrian ends up competing with vehicles like on any other crowded road in Patna.
So even as the PMC collects its data, a useful suggestion – let the team go for an evening walk in different parts of the city for five consecutive days – they will find themselves enriched with experience and also enrich their reports with living experience in the process.
The court passed the above directive hearing a PIL filed by a conscientious citizen Barun Kumar Sharma and the counsel submitted before the court that the responsibility of removing the encroachments should be fixed on the station house officer of the area concerned – a very good idea – to hold the station house officer of the area responsible for the animal owners. Otherwise, Patna will continue with the sight of a donkey desperately trying to cross the roads near the Kargil chowk, a common sight, as an urban icon of Patna!
Clearly, in a matter such as this, it is capital Patna which has to make the first move!