Rourkela: With the two kine houses in Rourkela town lying defunct, problems like traffic congestion and road accidents have assumed serious proportions of late.
Earlier, Animal Rescue and Maintenance Youths (ARMY), a ministry of environment- recognised organisation, used to run a kine house in the Rourkela Steel Plant area since 2006 while Rourkela Municipality Corporation (RMC) ran another at Balughat since 2012-13.
Stray cattle were caught and kept at these kine houses. Later, cattle-rearers would get their cattle released paying Rs 500 for each. The roads then had fewer stray cattle.
But gone are those days.
The two kine houses are now not functioning, resulting in the roads and lanes coming completely under the siege of these wandering cattle. The menace is serious in areas like Chhend colony, Basanti colony, Civil township, Shakti Nagar and some other areas. Accidents because of these cattle have become more frequent in these areas.
ARMY members took the matter up with the commissioner, RMC and demanded that the kine houses be made functional. Those who are to be roped in to catch the stray cattle should be trained, they demanded.
Urging the RMC to be more careful in providing treatment and care to these animals, Sangram Parida, one of the ARMY members, said required number of vehicles and dedicated employees would solve the problem.
PNN