Registration of cattle and maintenance of record therefor

(1) Head of every family shall be responsible to give or cause to be given, either orally or in writing, the details of cattle owned by his family to the concerned Pradhan or the Panchayat Secretary of the Gram Panchayat, within a period of one month from the commencement of the Himachal Pradesh Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Act, 2006, and thereafter every time as and when any change in the number of cattle takes place by any reasons. (2) On receipt of the details of cattle under sub-section (1), the Gram Panchayat shall register cattle and shall maintain records thereof in such form as may be notified by the State Government: Provided that the Gram Panchayat may charge registration fee at such rate as may be fixed by the Gram Panchayat. (3) It shall be the duty of the Gram Panchayat to assist the officials or persons engaged by the Animal Husbandry Department for applying appropriate identification mark on each cattle and to maintain the record of identification. (4) It shall be the duty of every Gram Panchayat to assist the officials or representatives of the Animal Husbandry Department in identifying the stray cattle within its jurisdiction. (5) If any cattle with identification mark is found stray, the owner of the cattle shall be identified by the Gram Panchayat from the record maintained by it and such owner shall be liable to a fine of Rs. 500 for the first offence and Rs. 700 in the event of second or subsequent offence, which shall be imposed by the Gram Panchayat. (6) If the Gram Panchayat fails in identifying such stray cattle due to tampering with identification mark or mutilation thereof, it shall report the matter to the In-charge of the nearest Animal Husbandry Dispensary who shall lodge the stray cattle to the nearest Gosadan or Goshala.