Jabalpur collector appears in HC over stray animal menace

Jabalpur Collector Chhavi Bharadwaj appeared in person before the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday to file an affidavit over action taken to remove stray animals from the streets here.

A division bench of justices P K Jaiswal and Anjali Palo had summoned the bureaucrat after finding out that no affidavit was filed in compliance with a previous court order, the district collector's counsel, Samdarshi Tiwari, said.

The collector appeared before the court and filed the affidavit, Tiwari added.

Over the delay in filing the affidavit, Tiwari said this was on account of the collector being away from Jabalpur.

In the affidavit, Bharadwaj said a decision was taken by the authorities concerned to take action under CrPC section 144 (related to prohibitory orders) against persons who set animals free on streets, the counsel said.

The district administration and the police had extended all possible support to the Jabalpur Municipal Corporation (JMC) to take action in this regard, he added.

The court was informed by the JMC that there was a shortage of land to keep the stray animals and the process was on to earmark more land, the counsel said.

The court gave a fortnight's time to officials to identify the land and create a new space to keep the stray animals, Tiwari said.