THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Efforts of the City Corporation to scale up infrastructure for stray dog management, including an ABC (Animal Birth Control) Centre cum Multi Speciality Veterinary Hospital and reopening of the existing ABC centre at Thiruvallam, continues to drag on inordinately. On Saturday, 38 people were injured in an attack by suspected rabid dogs, spreading widespread panic and making the city streets unsafe for citizens. According to officials, the dog squad under the civic body caught a dog from Attukal area on Sunday.
The officials said that searches are underway for the stray dogs, but they are unsure about the exact number of dogs involved in the attack. “None of the injuries are serious and around 25 people were treated at General Hospital and 3 at Medical College. We don’t know the exact number as many of them went to private hospital,” said an official source.
As per the official sources, the Rs 4.5 crore-ABC Centre-cum-multi-speciality veterinary hospital project, the first in the district, which was supposed to take off last January, has landed in legal soup after a private party approached the High Court against establishing the facility. “The corporation procured this land from the private party decades ago and now they have approached the court against using the land for this purpose. Hence, we were forced to put on hold the project. We are waiting for the court decision,” said a senior official of the City Corporation.
The civic body had awarded the work, which was expected to be completed within 18 months. The facility is planned as a one-stop care centre for all pet-related emergencies, vaccination, post-operative care. “Owing to the court dispute, we are unable to use our existing facility at Vandithadam in Thiruvalla. Now, we are solely dependent on the facility at Pettah which is mired in legal disputes. We are planning to scale up the infrastructure at Pettah so that more surgeries can be conducted here,” said an official.
The High Court had, around three years back, intervened and halted the operation at Vandithadam owing to poor facilities. As per a recent survey by the corporation, the stray dog population has declined in the capital. There are around 8,679 stray dogs in the corporation’s limits and around 42% of them are sterilised.
It is learnt that the contract with the NGO has expired and a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed with them very soon to continue their activities for another year. “We are planning for a comprehensive stray dog vaccination drive ahead of Onam. It will start immediately,” said a senior official.
Last year, the civic body had vaccinated around 7,309 stray dogs and this year so far around 4,567 strays were vaccinated. “We are able to do only around four or five sterilisation surgeries in a day. Public resistance and legal issues are challenging our activities. An average of four or five dog bite incidents get reported in a month in the city,” the official added.