Bengaluru: NGO’s tasked with catching and rehabilitating stray dogs are on strike. The strike has stricken the residents of various pockets of bengaluru with fear as the BBMP finds itself helpless without the support of these NGOs.
In Kamath Layout, off Tumkur Road, on wednesday, a lone resident was seen warily stepping on to the road while another one hesitantly joins, a club in hand. Both stare intently at the thick bushes in the vacant plots. Both are semi paralysed with fear for a few hours previously, a suspected rabid dog had bitten a woman on her morning walk. This is a problem in several pockets across the city. Take localities close to the BBMP zonal office in Rajarajeshwarinagar. Instances of dogs attacking children waiting for school buses and women passing by abound. Residents say complaints to the Palike office in their vicinity have fallen on deaf ears.
The five NGOs tasked with the dog-catching job, however, blame the BBMP for not clearing their pending bills. One of them, the Animal Rights Fund, stopped operations in the city on Wednesday. It’s the second organization to do so after Vets for Animals last December. Sarvodaya Sevabhavi Samstha has warned of complete withdrawal after February, citing financial problems.
“Currently we capture 20-odd dogs a day from Banaswadi, HAL, Indiranagar areas and have restricted ourselves only to attending dog bite complaint calls from areas like Mahadevapura and KR Puram. But with BBMP giving no assurance of clearing our dues citing financial woes, we will have to halt operations after this month,” Shital Kumar Gaikwad, the Samstha’s trustee told a Bengaluru daily. He said the money given by BBMP for one dog is paltry and they are forced to shell out another Rs 100 from their pockets for each dog.
Increased costs of management
Animal Rights Fund had actually resumed work last October after a brief halt following an assurance that their outstanding dues would be cleared. “We have not been paid for 20 months. It was getting difficult to sustain ourselves, therefore we halted operations,” said Naveen Kumar B V, manager.
The NGOs have to capture the strays and release them back into the ward post-castration. After their capture, the dogs are taken to the Animal Birth Control Centre where the vets de-worm them, put them on anesthesia, castrate them and administer them an anti-rabies vaccine before their release back into the ward. After a hike in rates from Feb 1, BBMP must now pay the NGOs Rs 650 for a female dog and Rs 600 for a male dog. Earlier the costs were Rs 525 and Rs 500 respectively.
Higher officials have promised to look into this matter and release the outstanding money in a week’s time. We will sort it out at the earliest. From April 2014 till date, the NGOs have managed to capture 25,000 dogs and sterilize them.
Photo courtesy: The Hindu
