ULBs have only one environmental engineer to address stray dog menace
Hyderabad: The Jawaharnagar Municipal Corporation (JMC) like other urban local bodies (ULBs) located in the vicinity of the GHMC does not have an exclusive veterinary wing.
One environmental engineer is deputed in each ULB to take up sanitation and related works, and also veterinary-related tasks.
In order to execute the animal birth control operations and anti-rabies vaccinations (ABC & ARV) for street dogs, ULBs have entered into a MoU with Blue Cross, a non-profit registered society.
A source in the corporation said that as bills of Rs 1.4 lakh were yet to be paid to Blue Cross, sterilisation of stray dogs had taken a backseat in Jawaharnagar, under whose limits an 18-month-old boy was mauled to death by stray dogs.
It was only after this incident that GHMC rushed vehicles to catch the stray dogs. JMC officials claimed that 60 dogs were captured from the location where the boy was mauled to death.
In addition, areas like Narsingi, Manikonda, Bairagiguda, Boduppal and Nizampet are densely populated. However, ULBs still lack a basic mechanism to address the stray dog menace.
“ As per AWBI guidelines and court orders, stray dogs can neither be shifted to other locations nor left abandoned elsewhere. If we flout these norms, we will lose our jobs. Several attempts to fix the issue, including having common feeding places for strays, have failed,” said the municipal commissioner of an ULB.
