Tall MCD claims fall flat

12 rabies deaths last year, agencies fail to check menace

The municipal corporations’ drive to sterilise and give anti-rabies vaccine to stray dogs with the help of NGOs has failed to prevent gruesome incidents like deaths due to dog bites.

Three persons have succumbed to rabies in the corporation-run Maharishi Valmiki Hospital so far this year.

Last year, 12 people died of the fatal disease.

In North Delhi Municipal Corporation 15,711 dog or monkey bite cases surfaced last year.
Officials claim they are doing their best but residents complain the results are not visible.
The corporations catch dogs with the help of NGOs. There are a total of nine NGOs involved in catching dogs in areas under the three municipal corporations.

People said that catching of dogs doesn’t serve any purpose.

“They are caught, sterilised and left at the same place from where they have been picked up. They start creating nuisance again. They start preying on the passers-by,” said Sulekha Kumar, a resident of New Ashok Nagar.

Another local said that if you are bitten by a monkey or dog, you may have to shell out huge sum for buying serum from private pharmacists. “The drug is in not available with every hospital in the city. Cases of dog bite are rampant in our locality alone,” said Rohit Kapoor, a Lajpat Nagar resident.

A senior official with New Delhi Municipal Council said that there were 13 complaints of monkey menace in the Patel Chowk area from March to May 19, 2014.

The areas from where monkey menace was reported include Patel Chowk, Mandir Marg, Connaught Place and Prithviraj Market, he added.

“There are 40 monkey catchers with the NDMC. We have employed these people to catch monkeys and send them to Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary. But catching one or two monkeys daily is not the solution. So we are meeting forest department officials to discuss ways to control their population,” said the official.

In all 6,098 stray dogs were sterilised in the north civic agency between January 2013 and April 2014.

The East Delhi Municipal Corporation sterilised 6,464 dogs between January 2013 and April 2014.

Leader of House, South Corporation Subhash Arya said that the civic agency will build its veterinary hospital at Tehkhand in south Delhi.

He said that DDA has allotted 2000 sq metres land to the corporation for it. Arya said that there are almost 5.5 lakh stray dogs in Delhi.

The issue was also discussed in the standing committee meeting of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Wednesday.

Councillors of both the ruling and opposition parties had said they were getting complaints from people in their respective areas about the increasing menace of stray animals, be it dogs or monkeys.

“The menace of strays has increased so much that the civic agency is seriously mulling to resort to killing the ones that look infected or diseased,” Bhardwaj had said. “If we have to file a petition in court, we will do so,” he added.