Deaths caused by stray cattle: Are you waiting for someone to die? Gujarat High Court pulls up State for inaction

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday pulled up the State government for dragging its feet on coming up with a comprehensive policy to tackle the issue of stray cattle causing injuries to people [Mustak Hussain Mehndi Hussain Kadri v. Jagadip Narayan Singh, IAS]..A Bench of Justices AS Supehia and MR Mengdey was hearing a contempt petition filed against the State for failing to formulate a policy for tackling the menace of stray cattle. On October 18 last year, the State assured the Court that it would come up with positive measures to address the issue.Noting that the State had not taken sufficient steps to this end, a miffed Justice Supehia said,"When will the State understand that security and safety of the citizens is supreme? Why aren't you taking it seriously? Where is the accountability of the officers? We want you to fix the accountability of a particular officer in every area, who will ensure cattle aren't roaming on the road. But you have not done anything. Are you waiting for someone to die?".The Court further said that the State authorities have utterly failed to consider the plight of the family members of victims who either died or got severely injured in cattle attacks."Have you ever thought of the plight of the family members of those who have died in such incidents? Despite our orders, we keep reading that someone is attacked or has died due to cattle menace. We want a permanent solution to this issue," the Bench demanded.It noted that co-ordinate benches of the High Court have been passing orders since the last three to four years, but 'ultimately' nothing has happened..Senior Advocate Mihir Joshi, representing the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), told the Court that the civic body is considering bringing in some long-term and short-term measures to curb the menace. The judges responded that once a policy is introduced either by the AMC or the State, it will ensure the same is implemented in every district. "It appears State government isn't interested in this issue at all. Every other State has a policy, even Rajasthan has (a policy). But it seems the State wants people of Gujarat to die first of an accident in a cattle attack and then there will be an uproar and everything will cool down and there will be a dormant attitude by the State and you (AMC)," Justice Supehia remarked. .During the hearing, Government Pleader Manisha Lavkumar-Shah told the Bench that the State government has taken numerous steps like building cattle hostels, taking help of cattle rearers, launching awareness drives, identifying hotspot areas, installing CCTVs, etc."So now frame a comprehensive policy and till then ask all the authorities to implement these steps in letter and spirit. We do not think the corporations have any intention to come up with any policy," the Bench replied.The Court recorded in its order that from the material on record, it is clear that neither the AMC nor the State is inclined to address the issue immediately..Meanwhile, the Bench was informed by an advocate that a man's daughter died in such an attack in Ahmedabad. Counsel for the AMC told the Bench that the 'proposed' policy of the municipal body was rejected or returned by its Standing Committee."Will this not shake your (AMC) conscience? Give us the names of your Standing Committee members and also the Commissioner. We will call all of them tomorrow morning at 11 AM."The Bench, however, dropped the idea of summoning the officials to court court and granted time to the State to place on record a policy by Tuesday morning.