As P’kula suspends sterilisation of dogs, UT makes the most of it

Hina Rohtaki

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, December 13

If you live in or are visiting Panchkula, beware! As stray dogs here are not being sterilised.

Shocking but true! Contrary to the claim made by the Panchkula civic authorities that stray dogs are being sterilised here, it is actually the stray dogs from Chandigarh that are being brought by the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation for sterilisation at Panchkula.

The facility meant for the Panchkula civic authorities is being “used” by their Chandigarh counterpart, thanks to the callousness of the officials here.

The issue of sterilisation of the canines came to the fore after a series of dogbites, including the incident of a 12-year-old girl being bitten thrice within a week in Sector 9, here.
Dr MR Singla, in charge of the Government Pet Clinic, in Sector 3, where dog sterilisation is done, said, “Only two stray dogs of the total 5,000 dogs in Panchkula have been sterilised. It was in 2012-13 that 1,400 stray dogs were sterlised.
“The sterilisation programme has been suspended in Panchkula,”
Singla said.
He further said, “I have asked the Executive Officer several times to get the dogs steralised as it is the MC’s job to catch them and get them to us, but the officials are reluctant.”
Singla further said the dogs were being actually steralised for the
Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.
For the past three months, it had been sending us five dogs on a daily basis for sterilization, Singla added
“Even the dog pound which has been partially completed at a cost of Rs 25 lakh is being used to keep the stray dogs from Chandigarh. The Panchkula MC doesn’t take the stray dogs issue seriously,” added Singla.
The Commissioner of Panchkula Municipal Corporation, SP Arora, said, “ I have called for the file on Monday and have fixed up a meeting with Dr Singla and the MC officials as to why the sterilisation was not carried out despite all facilities.”
He said, “I have also spoken to an NGO to study other measures to curb stray dog menace.”
Yesterday, Chandigarh Tribune in its columns highlighted the stray dogs’ terror in Sector 9 and how a 12-year-old girl was bitten three times.

Chandigarh makes the most of it

The material for sterilisation which was purchased for stray dogs in Panchkula was being used to sterilise the stray dogs from Chandigarh, as the Panchkula Municipal Corporation had stopped using the facility. The Joint Commissioner of the Chandigarh MC, Rajeev Gupta, said, “Besides the provisions we have in Chandigarh, to speed up the steralisation programme, we have got the job done at Panchkula.”