More than a month after the municipal commissioner ordered that micro chips be implanted in buffaloes used to pull the 813 carts used for lifting garbage, not a single buffalo has been tagged with the micro chips.

The office of the deputy commissioner, Shahdara South, had released a circular asking buffalo cart owners to have their buffaloes tagged. “What if our buffaloes die because of these micro chips? Will the MCD take responsibility?” Rajender Parcha, chairman of the Sanitation Staff Union, asked.

The buffalo owners also said tagging their cattle with micro chips would hurt their religious sentiments.

Kanwar Sen, ward committee chairman of Shahdara, had raised the issue in a meeting of the Standing Committee on December 10 last year. Sen said the MCD was paying Rs 225 per day to the buffalo cart owners but no carts could be seen in the area and the garbage had not been lifted.

Municipal Commissioner K S Mehra had ordered the tagging of these buffaloes to keep a check on the number and movement of the buffalo carts. But the owners of the buffaloes refuse to do so.

The MCD continues to make regular payments despite claims that the 813 buffalo carts exist only in its records. “After the circular, we asked all cart owners to assemble at the veterinary hospital at Karawal Nagar. But the association could not get more than 300 carts,” Mehak Singh, municipal councillor from Shahdara, said.

“Most of the men who were pulling these carts are now members of the MCD’s permanent sanitation staff. They have been drawing salaries as per scale. And the sanitation department says it has been paying for 813 carts. Where is this money actually going?” he asked.

“The response so far has not been very good. We are facing resistance from the cart owners union. But the Corporation wants to verify the actual number of buffalo carts. If the buffaloes exist they will have to be tagged, else the Corporation will stop making those payments. Owners who refuse to tag their cattle will be removed from the department,” Deep Mathur, municipal spokesperson, said.