Believe it or not, unable to check dog menace, Chandigarh Mayor, Poonam Sharma has shot off a letter to Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh seeking Centre’s help to check dog menace in this city.
An official release claimed here today that the Mayor had also been in regular touch with Central Research Institute (CRI) as several dog bite cases were reported from the city. “Strict laws make it difficult to take effective steps as such she had to write to the Union Home Minister to seek Centre’s help in dealing with the situation”, the Mayor observed. The Mayor has also written a letter to Women and Child Development Minister and an animal rights activist, Maneka Gandhi in this regard.
In a recent case a student of University of St. Andrews, Scotland, Mehrab Grewal on a vacation to Chandigarh was forced to defer his return to the University after he was bitten by a stray dog on June 19. The 22 year student is convalescing in Chandigarh now.
Earlier a six-year-old girl, Sadia, who was bitten by a rabid dog on her lips here died of rabies at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research. She was brutally attacked by a dog in Manimajra. The dog died later after attacking 13 persons causing panic.
In the past one year, there has been spurt in the number of dog attack cases and the municipal authorities here have been battling to find a solution to the problem. Officials confirmed that nearly 500 dog bite cases are reported from the city each month with over 13,000 persons falling victim in the past over two years.
Mayor Poonam Sharma who expressed helplessness to handle dog menace said that we have speeded up sterilisation drive for dogs, but civic authorities had their limitations. “We have around 20,000 stray and pet dogs in the city. We can build dog ponds and take other steps to check the stray dog menace, but there are a number of NGOs who create obstacles,” she said.
“The Centre should step in as we cannot test every single dog for rabies, it is not practically possible”, Poonam Sharma quipped. Ironically, the rules are such that if a person is bitten by a pet dog in Chandigarh, the owner has to compensate the victim but the same is not applicable to victims of bites from stray dogs. The Mayor also said that Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher, should raise the dog menace issue and its implications for the city residents, in the Parliament.