E Arun & Tarun Kartick
Port Blair, Aug 04: Port Blair Municipal Council the authority responsible for the development of the Port Blair town, is also the responsible authority to control the dog menace. PBMC along with the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services is conducting the animal birth control programme since the year 1994.
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services since the beginning had been doing commendable work until the year 2009 when PBMC made an alliance with an NGO FRIENDICOES-SECA for conducting the birth control programme for stray dogs of the PBMC area.
Recently an English Fortnightly raised some issues, which raised several questions about the alliance of the FRIENDICOES-SECA with PBMC based on several information obtained by RTI Act 2005. The Fortnightly has alleged that the department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary services was carrying out the sterilization process of dogs at Rs. 4.75/- per dog per day but FRIENDICOES-SECA carries out the same process at Rs. 445/- per dog.
It has been almost 19 years since the PBMC has started the Animal Birth Control Programme but the outcome is disappointing. Nobody in Port Blair city needs a proof about increasing dog menace. Every street, every locality and every road stretches are now-a-days crowded with stray dogs, who are giving a horrible time to general public.
Little children are horrified to go outside alone at night as dogs often chase them in group and attack them. At night driving two wheelers is also impossible as in every stretch of road one encounters with two or three such chasing dogs, which often leads to road accident.
The English Fortnightly, in its latest edition had alleged that the new NGO FRIENDICOES-SECA is not conducting the sterilization programme properly and just indulges in corruption in the name of the Animal Birth Control Programme. Further the Fortnightly also alleged that the testicles, ovaries and other organs extracted from the dogs are not counted by the PBMC authorities and the bills are cleared without verification.
When Andaman Sheekha contacted Mr. P.B Murugan, Chairperson, PBMC in this regard, Mr. Murugan informed us that most of the dogs that we see today in the Municipal area are sterilized.
He also added that almost 60% of the left out unsterilized dogs will be sterilized by v10th of October 2013. He also added that only after a few years the effect of the Birth Control Programme will be seen when the present sterilized generation will die. He also informed us that after sterilization the dogs are again left in the same area from where they were picked up and also added that from April 2009 till date more than 5000 dogs were sterilized.
As in last 19 years the PBMC has failed to yield positive result, general public have now no expectations from PBMC. Public urges the Lt. Governor to order the Animal Husbandry to take up the work of Dog Sterilization without taking any help from PBMC or any NGO.
