Adil Lateef
Srinagar, Oct 8: Government today said that it is working on “multiple strategies” to control the dog menace in Kashmir valley and the dog bite cases is decreasing and it has come to down to 3701 in summer capital.
In a written reply to MLC Mohammad Muzaffar Parray Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh, who is also In-charge Minister of Housing and Urban Development Department, stated that there has been 35 percent decrease in dog bite cases while the population of canines has also decreased by 50 percent.
“As a result of fall in dog population in Srinagar city by 50 percent, the dog bite cases reported at anti rabies clinic of Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital Srinagar have fallen during the year 2014 by 35 percent. There were total 5704 dog bite cases in 2013 whereas only 3701 such cases were recorded during the year 2014,” the Government stated.
DyCM said that Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has been working on multiple strategies to control the dog menace within the city that include minimizing the availability of food and garbage on the roads and Animal Birth Control Programme and Anti Rabies Programme (ABC – AR Programme). The Government said that ABC – AR Programme are running with “encouraging results”.
“Further all the Municipal Committees of Kashmir have been asked to improve upon the condition of sanitation in their respective jurisdiction with special thrust to ensure that the waste food particularly generated by the slaughtering of animals and birds is not easy available to the stray dogs and appropriate measures are taken for its disposal beyond the access of dogs,” the Government said.
DyCM further said that State Animal Welfare Board has issued orders for adoption of the recommendations of the expert committee on stray dogs and these guidelines will also apply to other districts and in such cases the Chairman of the Monitoring Committee will be the concerned Local Body Officer of the District/Executive Officers of the local municipalities, as the case may be.
The Government denied the allegation that the SMC is transporting dogs from city areas to villages and added that “no such strategy is being adopted”.
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