Not even a single stray dog has been sterilised under the Animal Birth Control programme of the city Corporation since November last year. The authorities of the local body were also not aware of the same until March, when a project review meeting was held. With no major stray dog bite being reported during this period, the lack of functioning of the ABC wing had not come to the notice of the public.
The local body authorities puts the blame on the implementing officer for demolishing the sterilisation facility attached to the Government Veterinary Hospital in Pettah, without making alternative arrangements. The implementing officer meanwhile maintains that the Corporation had earlier decided to shift the entire sterilisation facility to Thiruvallam.
The new ABC project of the Corporation launched in early 2017 was supposed to be implemented in three steps, with the first step involving a complete survey of the stray dog population in the city. The second step was to sterilise the stray dogs and attach a microchip to their bodies to track them. The third was to provide sterilise and then provide licensing and microchips to pet dogs.
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Project went haywire
“The project did not take off properly. Sterilisation of stray dogs were stopped way back in November, when the facility in Pettah was demolished for a new building. But, still they used to get complaints about stray dogs from various localities. The dog catchers were sent to these places and the dogs kept in cages at Pettah for few days. They were released later without any sterilisation as it could not be done,” says a Corporation offficial.
The facility in Thiruvallam was supposed to have been set up using pre-fabricated buildings like the ones used in the National Games village. But this has not taken off due to various reasons, including local protests. The local body authorities are not so confident of re-starting the sterilisation works at Pettah too, as there was opposition from the local people here too against stray dogs being sterilised here.
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Meanwhile, the Corporation had last month recommended action against the implementing officer as the ABC programme itself has come to a grinding halt.