Vidhan Sabha committee reviews ongoing projects for stray animals in Amritsar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 27

The Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly) committee constituted by the Punjab Government reviewed the arrangements being made by the Municipal Corporation (MC) under the pilot project for stray animals here on Wednesday.

The meeting was held at the MC headquarters in Ranjit Avenue, in which Mayor Karamjit Singh, committee chairman MLA Inderbir Singh Bularia, MLA Sukhwinder Singh Danny Bandala, MLA Harinderpal Singh Chandumajra, MC Commissioner Malvinder Singh Jaggi, Deputy Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khaira, officers of Punjab Health Department and Punjab Animal Husbandry Department, besides the city police officers participated.

The meeting was formally inaugurated by the Mayor after which various pilot projects being run by the MC for the prevention of stray dog population and for the care of stray animals were discussed in detail.

MC Commissioner Jaggi told the committee members about the programmes being implemented by the Municipal Corporation for the welfare of animals and birth control on which the Vidhan Sabha Committee members expressed satisfaction.

Mayor Karamjit Singh, in his address, welcomed the visiting members of the Vidhan Sabha committee and said appropriate measures were being taken to solve the problem of stray and helpless animals. He said during the tenure of the present house, the MC has set up a modern dog sterilisation centre at Narayangarh, Gumanpura Road, at a cost of Rs34 lakh to solve these problems. The centre has a capacity to house around 60 stray dogs at a time and sterilisation of dogs is going on at the centre. Apart from this, efforts were being made to provide dog catching vehicles so that they could be brought for sterilisation.

The Mayor said the government had imposed cow cess for the care of stray cows in the state, which is being collected by various departments under various heads but it was not being provided to the MCs. He suggested to the Vidhan Sabha committee that the government should issue instructions to the departments collecting cow cess to provide all cow cess to the MCs, so that adequate infrastructure could be developed to take care of sick and helpless cows.

Later, the members of the Vidhan Sabha committee also visited the gaushala built by the Municipal Corporation at Gumanpura and the Animal Birth Control Centre being run by the Municipal Corporation in collaboration with Animal Welfare Charitable Trust in Fatehgarh Shukrchak.

Dr Yogesh Arora, Municipal Health Officer, Chief Sanitary Inspectors and Sanitation Inspectors were also present on the occasion.