TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: The menace of stray dogs has come to haunt the Cuncolim Municipal Council, even as it has failed to place any mechanism in place to tackle the same.
Residents have been complaining of stray dogs, whose population has seen a rise in recent times in the absence of any animal birth control programme.
In fact, complaints of stray dogs posing a threat to human beings and attack by these canines on domestic animals, including pigs, have been pouring in. Complaints made to CMC have fallen on deaf ears as the civic body has failed to put a mechanism in place to contain the menace.
Inquiries have revealed that ever since the High Court order banning killing of stray dogs had come into force over a decade ago, the civic body has done absolutely nothing to tackle the stray menace.
When contacted, CMC Chairperson Devendra Desai admitted that the civic body has not put in place any mechanism in place to tackle the stray dog menace. He, however, hastened to add that the municipality has proposed to tie up with an NGO to sterilise the stray dogs on a weekly basis. “The proposal will be placed before the forthcoming meeting of the Council to get the nod of the city fathers to sign an agreement with the NGO to treat the strays,” Desai said.
So far, the Cuncolim civic body neither has any infrastructure in place, including a dog shelter or cages, to keep the strays nor has dog catchers to catch the strays on the prowl.
