Rajnath to inaugurate Raipur Kalan cattle pound

Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, who will inaugurate the country’s first Indian Air Force (IAF) heritage centre in Chandigarh on May 8, will also inaugurate the city’s biggest cattle pound in Raipur Kalan during his visit.

The city’s stray cattle menace has been exacerbated by the overcrowded gaushalas and problems in cattle catching and managing the animals.

The new cattle pound, being set up on a five-acre land at a cost of around ₹6.4 crore, will have the capacity to house around 1,000 cattle.

City mayor Anup Gupta said, “The city’s first modern cattle pound is set to open in May and will curb the stray cattle menace in the city. The Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) is making several efforts to tackle the problem and recently, the MC has added three more cattle units to ensure that cattle are caught in a humane way and housed at MC’s gaushalas. Also, all four gaushalas are being upgraded and the MC is also setting up effluent treatment plants (ETPs) at the gaushalas to treat the liquid waste.”

In October 2019, the then UT adviser Manoj Parida had laid the foundation stone of the new cattle pound project. The cattle pound will completely run on solar power and will have an effluent treatment plant (ETP), a first in the city. It will also have a hospital, a laboratory, a kitchen, a parking area and a dormitory for workers. At present, the civic body has a total of four gaushalas, one each in Sector 25, 45, Maloya and Industrial area. All guashalas, however, are running to full capacity and house over 2,800 cattle at present.