Hyderabad: A committee that the GHMC formed under the BRS government, after a spate of dog bites, to come up with measures to curb incidents of rising number of dog bites in the city has remained on paper.
It has come to such a sorry state that members said that they were not even sure if the committee existed or whether it has been done away with.
They pointed out that the 25 suggestions that were given by the committee were duly approved but none has been implemented despite the frequent complaints of dog bites.
In the last week of November, a six-year-old boy was critically injured when a stray dog bit him in Nandi Musalaiguda, Bahadurpura. Earlier in the year, a child had died after being mauled by dogs in February.
The committee, comprising corporators and officials, was formed after the February incident.
“In order to come up with viable suggestions, I spoke to experts, NGOs, veterinary doctors, and people, who both love strays and fear them,” said Sravan Vurapalli, BJP corporator from Malkajgiri, a member of the committee.
“Now I don’t even know whether the committee exists,” he said and blamed Mayor G. Vijayalakshmi, who constituted the committee, and officials for not implementing the panel’s suggestions.
Asked about this, a corporation official said that the major suggestion regarding an increase in dog catching vehicles from 30 to 50 had been implemented.
“We have also increased the number of sterilisations per day. The committee suggested more veterinary doctors but their recruitment is done by the government and not by us,” said Dr Abdul Wakil, GHMC's chief veterinary officer.
C.N. Reddy, Congress corporator from Rahmathnagar ward, who is on the committee, also wondered if the it existed or not.
Only, Daripally Rajashekar Reddy, Congress floor leader and corporator from Lingojiguda ward, said that the veterinary wing was executing works diligently in his ward.
Not implemented
The committee made 26 suggestions to prevent dog bites. Here is an excerpt
- Increasing the number of stray dog catching vehicles from 30 to 50, operating them at night
- Increasing the number of dog sterilisations
- Animal welfare organisations to create shelters for aggressive stray dogs
- Placing water bowls for strays, encouraging dog adoption
- Contacting resident welfare associations, slum and town-level federations and creating awareness regarding feeding of stray dogs
- All sanitation staff to be trained to deal with stray dogs.
