VISAKHAPATNAM: Unscientific disposal of stale non-vegetable food by hotel owners and offal by meat vendors was found to be one of the main reasons for the increasing attacks on humans by stray dogs in the city and its surrounding areas.
With a view to control the ever increasing stray dog menace in Vizag, the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) is all set to crack the whip against such hotel owners and meat vendors, if they fail to handover the waste to the GVMC garbage vehicles.
The GVMC officials observed that a large number of stray dogs are getting habituated to waste food and offal being dumped by hoteliers and meat vendors on roadside or near the establishments. They suspect that in case of unavailability, these street dogs are attacking the public for food and sometimes attacking children for meat. “We convened a meeting with the hoteliers and the meat vendors Wednesday and advised them not to dump the garbage on the roadside. They should store the waste properly and hand it over to the GVMC garbage vans,” municipal commissioner Pravin Kumar told newsmen here Wednesday.
Apart from encouraging the hoteliers and meat vendors to adopt scientific methods for waste disposal, the GVMC will cancel trade licences of those failing to go by the norms. According to estimates, the number of street dogs in the city has increased from about 80,000 in 2012 to one lakh this year, despite sterilisation, which is part of the ongoing process to control the dog menace.
The GVMC would ask the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to set up a sewage treatment plant on its premises and use the recycled water for industrial purposes. “We are currently supplying about 35 MGD water to the Steel Plant and they want us to supply 40 MGD from June-July. As this would impact water supply to the city, we have proposed that the Steel Plant set up a waste water treatment plant and use the recycled water for the plant,” he added. If approved, the Steel Plant will have about 50 MGD water at its disposal. The GVMC is likely to construct pipelines for diversion of the sewage water.
Meanwhile, the GVMC is proposing to construct four night shelters in the city at Bhupesh Nagar, NSTL, Bheemnagar and Collectorate Junction in addition to the existing ones at TSR Complex and Bheemnagar. When questioned about the delay in reconstruction and repairs to properties damaged during the Hudhud cyclone, Pravin Kumar said that the government released only Rs 7.5 crore as against Rs 17 crore it had promised. However, all the works will be completed once the government releases the funds, he clarified.