Stray cattle on a Sambalpur road. Telegraph picture

Sambalpur, Jan. 10: The municipality has decided to auction the stray cattle, which were caught during a drive, on January 15.

To make the roads of the city free from the stray cattle, the civic body had launched a drive against these animals in November and caught 116 cattle that were roaming on the city streets.

The municipality kept the captured cattle in the State Livestock Breeding and Agricultural Farm at Chiplima, around 25 kilometres away from here.

The municipality also imposed a hefty fine of Rs 500 on the owners of the animal, who went to the farm to release their cattle.

Some of the cattle were released after the owners paid the fine slapped by the municipality.

However, 72 cattle are still there at the farm as the owners have not come forward for the rescue of these animals. As the owners are not coming forward to claim these animals, the municipality has decided to auction them on January 15.

“More than Rs 1 lakh has already been spent on the fodder of the cattle,” said executive officer of Sambalpur Municipality Anirudhha Pradhan.

“Before the auction, we will make announcement about this move of the municipality,” said Pradhan.

Earlier, the municipality had made announcements several times and urged the people not to let their cattle roam in the open. However, as the announcements did not work, the municipality had launched the drive to catch animals from the city roads.

Stray cattle menace is a serious problem for the residents of the city. One can see stray cattle wandering on almost all the city roads creating traffic chaos.

The cattle are seen hanging around at the Charbhati Chhak, Jailkhana Chhak, Ainthapali Chhak, Golebazar Chhak, Laxmi Talkies Chhak and in all the important markets of the city.

“The stray cattle contribute to several road accidents in the city, causing injury to both the cattle and the human. Moreover, they also cause severe traffic problem on the busy roads of the city regularly,” said Manoj Singh, a local resident.

'The decision of the civic body to auction stray cattle will deter the owners of the animals from releasing their cattle to the roads,” he said.