’Shah Rukh’ rocks Town Hall

It is not the Bollywood Badshah, but a stray dog that has become a menace to the residents of Mukherjee Nagar

'Shah Rukh' rocks Town Hall

It is not the Bollywood Badshah, but a stray dog that has become a menace to the residents of Mukherjee Nagar

Shah Rukh, the worst fear of the residents of Mukherjee Nagar is a street dogu00a0 which returned to haunt them, caused a ruckus in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday.

Taking cognizance of the story carried by by MiD DAY, "MCD let the mad dog out", Congress councillor Anita Babbar raised the issue of street dog menace in the city, demanding an inquiry into the matter.

"A bitch sterilised by an NGO a few months back, has given birth to four puppies in my colony. How is this possible?" asked Babbar.

"The MCD claims that it had sterilised about 17,000 dogs in the last one year. If their claims are true why the number of the animal is growing so rapidly," Leader of the Opposition in the MCD house Jaikishan Sharma told MiD DAY.

"Neither the NGOs, which are in the business, nor the MCD officers are properly handling the policy to curb the number of street dogs. Both of them are misguiding and misusing crores of rupees allocated for the scheme," Sharma alleged.

According to an MCD report, during the year 2005-06 about Rs 1.23 crore were spent on dog sterilisation, Rs 18 lakh in 2006-07 and about Rs 1.14 crore in 2007-08.u00a0 "The MCD has given the contract for sterilising street dogs to various NGOs. They are paid at the rate of Rs 445 per dog. Rates are planned by experts as per the process involved in sterilisation. This includes charges for transportation to the veterinary clinic and back to the locality from where the dog has been caught, charges of the veterinary doctor and post-operation measures taken by the NGO," said Vijender Gupta, Chairman, MCD Standing Committee.

He said at present 10 NGOs are working for the civic body's sterilisation programme. "Officials of the MCD and the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) jointly inspect the working of these NGOs," Gupta added.

More expenses and further expenditure plans of the MCD to check the number of stray dogs in the Capital notwithstanding, the civic body is yet to prepare the census on how many stray dogs are there.

u00a0"We do not have any record on how many stray dogs are there in the Capital at present. Wildlife SOS, the agency deputed for the purpose will submit the report in six months," said MCD Commissioner KS Mehra.

He said that the counting was delayed because of the rainy season as stray dogs hide to avoid rains, making the exact estimation difficult.

It can be noted that the civic body had in 2007 sent its officials to Ahmedabad to study the Catch Neuter Vaccinate and Release (CNVR) model followed by the municipal corporation there.

They have vowed to control the population of stray dogs before the Commonwealth Games in 2010.