Karna Govt promises to end stray dog menace

Karna Govt promises to end stray dog menace
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Facing intense public fury over the recent incident in which a four-year-old boy was mauled to death by a pack of dogs, Karnataka government today promised to end the menace of stray dogs within a month.

The state government also announced an eight-point programme in this direction.

"All dogs moving in a pack, ferocious, rabid and those afflicted by diseases would be done to sleep mercilessly", Minister for Health R Ashok told a press conference here.

The state would also move the Centre to amend the existing act which prohibits mercy killing of dogs, to enable authorities effectively check the menace of street dogs.

In the aftermath of an incident two months back in which an eight-year-old girl was mauled to death by a pack of dogs in Chandra layout in the city, atleast 600 stray dogs have been put to sleep, Ashok claimed.

"The exercise is continuing in other areas" he said and expressed displeasure over the working of four NGOS, entrusted with the task of ABC (Animal Birth Control) programme, on which the Bruhut Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) spend Rs 1.5 crore annually.

BBMP commissioner K Jairaj, said as part of the eight-point programme, the corporation would double the number of vehicles drafted for capturing stray dogs from three to six in all the three zones.

It has identified 48 localities in the city where the population of stray dogs is more, he said. Jairaj said as against the norm that a vehicle should atleast capture 25 to 28 stray dogs daily, the number of catches have been as low as eight. "In future the activities of these dog capturing vans would be videographed", he said.

Beml authorities, in whose colony the four-year-old boy Manjunath was mauled to death by a pack of dogs two days back, on Friday awarded Rs three lakh compensation to the boy's family.

The BBMP has already paid Rs one Lakh compensation.