DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Taking serious note of the accidents caused by stray cattle in the state, Punjab government has decided to prepare a comprehensive plan for the preservation and management of stray cattle. It has also been decided that a dedicated committee will be set up to formulate a uniform policy for providing adequate compensation to the victims of accidents involving stray animals. Presiding over a high-level meeting at the Punjab Civil Secretariat here today, Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua directed the Local Government and Rural Development & Panchayats Departments to identify stray animals roaming freely in their respective areas and make arrangements for leaving them in gaushalas after holding them using special vehicles. He asked the officials of the Governance Reforms department to create a tracking system equipped with geo-mapping to find out where the stray cattle are roaming, and a control room can also be set up, where stray animal carrying vehicles can be accessed easily for stray animal transportation up till gaushalas. The Chief Secretary further said, accidents involving stray animals are a matter of great concern, as precious human lives are lost due to this. Thus, the concerned departments should work in tandem for the prevention of stray animals. The policy for providing compensation to the families of victims, who lost their lives in accidents with stray animals, was also discussed in the meeting. The Chief Secretary decided to constitute a Committee comprising the Finance Commissioner Rural Development and Panchayats, Principal Secretary Local Government, Principal Secretary Animal Husbandry, Principal Secretary Transport and ADGP Traffic so that a uniform policy can be formulated for giving adequate compensation. The meeting was attended by Finance Commissioner Rural Development and Panchayats K Siva Prasad, Principal Secretary Animal Husbandry Vikas Pratap, Principal Secretary Governance Reforms Tejvir Singh, Principal Secretary Local Government Vivek Pratap Singh, Principal Secretary Finance Ajoy Kumar Sinha and Vice Chancellor Guru Angad Dev University of Veterinary Animal Sciences, Ludhiana Dr. Inderjit Singh. (editor@dailyworld.in)