Principal Secretary Municipal Administration Dana Kishore held a high level meeting with the officials of GHMC, veterinary department, members of Blue Cross and other animal welfare organisations at secretariat to discuss the issue of dog menace.
He announced setting up of an apex committee comprising senior officials of the various government departments and member of the blue cross and directed them to formulate an action plan to prevent the dog menace and control the incidents of dog bites.
He underlined the need to take up Information, Education,Communication (IEC) campaign for creating awareness to resident welfare associations, slum level federations and school children about
the dog’s behaviour. He directed that animal care centres should be established in all the urban local bodies of the state at the earliest. A training programme for all the sanitary jawans, field
sanitary assistants, women self help groups and mother’s groups should be conducted in every ward of the GHMC within next week to create awareness about the street dog menace. Similar training programme should also be conducted in all the ULBs in the state. The GHMC officials were also told to set up couple of shelter homes for stray dogs in the city on a pilot basis.
GHMC Commissioner Amrapali said that the GHMC will take up survey of stray dogs in the city along with a sterilization drive and anti rabies vaccination of all the street dogs. She also stated that GHMC will initiate steps to promote pet dog registration, elimination of garbage vulnerable points to avoid gathering of street dogs, ensuring proper food waste disposal by hotels, restaurants, function halls, etc and also making availability of crèche mandatory at the construction sites as the children of construction labour are most vulnerable to fatal dog attacks when the parents leave the children along on work.
Members discussed the challenges being faced in handling the stray dog menace. It was felt that coordination of all departments is essential in tackling the stray dog menace. It was also pointed out that there is a need to educate pet dog owners as well as dog feeders.
