The government which wants to provide VVIPs safety and security seems to be facing several problems and obstacles.
The City Security Wing (CSW) has to use sniffer dogs as preventive security for sterilising the venues of bombs and ammunition and for anti-sabotage checks. While only six dogs are available with CSW the VIP movements have increased manifold in the last two years.
The CSW is supposed to be having five sniffer dogs and three tracker dogs, but only six dogs are in service and two were given retirement by the veterinary doctors. This has put tremendous pressure on the police to conduct anti-sabotage checks and granting of clearance for the programmes.
Six dogs
In addition to the six ‘in-service’ dogs, two more dogs are available with the Railway Protection Force (RPF). On several occasions, dog squads from the neighbouring districts and from Telangana State had to be commissioned. This was the case during the Rajadhani foundation stone-laying programme, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended in Guntur district, and during Godavari Pushkarams last year.
Canines are trained to check narcotics and detect red sanders; used as sniffers and trackers for casualty detection, guarding, and infantry patrolling. But, only sniffer and tracker dogs are available with the police in the capital city.
Police will take Labrador retriever dogs to the Integrated Intelligence Training Academy (IITA) at Moinabad, Rangareddy district in Telangana State, and the pups will be trained at the National Training Centre for Dogs (NTCD), Takenpur in Madhya Pradesh.
The pups will be given four months training on love and affection, basic obedience for 60 days and category wise training would be given for another four months. Then the dogs are sent to different States as per requirement.
More workload?
“The life span of a dog is about 16 years. As per norms, a canine could be in service for nine years; later health fitness certificate should be obtained from Government Veterinary Surgeon. We can press the dog to work for four hours with suitable rest in a day,” said a dog handler.
