HYDERABAD: AS the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Hyderabad (GHMC) is being flooded with complaints related to stray dog attacks and dog bites cases across the city, the civic body’s veterinary wing is struggling to deal with the issue due to non-availability of dog vans and enforcement vehicles.
Presently, the wing is utilising the dog vans and enforcement vehicles allotted to it at the time of decentralisation of veterinary section and formation of new zones. In view of the State government directing the civic body to launch a special drive to catch the stray dogs in the city, the GHMC has decided to engage as many as 20 customised vehicles, drivers and semi-skilled workers for a period of 90 days for the purpose in all six zones.
‘’In order to meet the increased work load and attend to the ever increasing complaints from the public and public representatives, there is a dire necessity for allotting one dog van to each circle. This help in attending to all complaints effectively and in time to avoid public criticism’’, a GHMC official said.
The GHMC will be spending around `1.20 crore for deploying the vehicles and the workers during the three-month period. The driver and semi-skilled workers will work for eight hours per day during that period.
While four vans each will be allotted to Charminar and Secunderabad zones, three vans each will be deployed in LB Nagar, Khairatabad, Serilingampally and Kukatpally zones. These vehicles will have four cages for carrying dogs.
Whenever a vehicle breaks down, an alternate van will be provided within two hours, the official informed.
“The stray dogs will be shifted to the Animal Care Centres in the respective zones. All those dogs will be sterilised under the Animal Birth Control-Anti Rabies (ABC/AR) programme as per Supreme Court ruling, the central government laws, GHMC rules and SOP norms of Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI). All the sterilised stray dogs will then be released in the same location from where they are caught,” the official added.