Hyderabad: The Secunderabad Cantonment Board has failed to keep tabs on the number of stray dogs within its limits. It has also failed to sterilise them. The Board had roped in an NGO to attend to complaints related to stray dogs in its eight wards, but that organisation is not doing its job anymore.
Complaints made by residents are not attended to promptly. In Text Book Colony alone, in Kharkhana, there are nearly 15 stray dogs who roam the streets and create panic among the locals, especially at night. Nearly 300 families live in there.
A resident of the colony said, “Our colony association has taken the issue up with the Cantonment Board on several occasions. Until last year, teams used to make rounds of colonies in the area to catch dogs and carry out vaccination and sterilisation process. Their visits have become irregular over the past six months.”
The Cantonment Board is currently exploring two options to address the issue – it will either assign the task to another NGO assume the responsibility to itself do it, like the GHMC. However, this will not be an easy task. An additional wing will have to be set up, and veterinary doctors will have to be recruited, which is a major exercise.
According to the member of an NGO that provides care for street dogs, the Board’s lack of infrastructure is a big disadvantage. NGOs have the manpower, experts, and medicines, but they need operation theatres, and well-equipped kennels to be able to do their job, he says.
