LUCKNOW, Sept. 14 -- Farmers launched a protest at the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) headquarters here on Saturday and accused officials of targeting poor villagers while sparing illegal dairies. They alleged that LMC's animal welfare team seized livestock from farmers and even caused the death of a cattle during recent raids in Kakori's Baravan Kala village. The protest was backed by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) (Tikait), whose district president Alok Verma said the civic team beat cattle during raids, leading to the death of one, and seized livestock illegally. He accused LMC officials of tipping off illegal dairies to let them remove animals before the raids. "The municipal corporation is targeting small dairy farmers while letting large dairies continue unchecked," Verma added.LMC's animal welfare officer Abhinav Verma said LMC launched a drive on Friday after multiple complaints and seized and brought cattle to the Kanji House in the PGI area. Verma, however, denied the claims and said no animal died during the raids. He said that the protest was because of the fines, which LMC charges after catching illegal cattle. During the protest, farmers raised slogans against LMC and vowed to continue their movement until officials acted against illegal dairies. Protesters said the civic body has never faced a major stir, but this time the farmers were prepared for a long struggle.htc...