Indian Express 01.11.2010
Board, PMC at loggerheads over dogs in cantonment
Ishfaq Naseem Tags : Khadki Cantonment Board, Pune Municipal Corporation, PMC Posted: Mon Nov 01 2010, 06:04 hrs
Pune: The Khadki Cantonment Board and the Pune Municipal Corporation are at loggerheads over rising number of dogs in the cantonment area with the board blaming the civic body for releasing dogs in the area. “PMC releases its dogs near Bhosale Nagar from where they come to our area. The workers have reported it to me and I have already taken up the matter with higher officials. We plan to write to the corporation to stop this practice,” said KCB veterinary officer, Dr Satish Bhande, responsible for the dog sterlisation project in the KCB . “A number of complaints have come to us from the civil and military areas about the rising dog menace.”PMC medical officer, R R Pardeshi, said the allegations were baseless. “It is never done. Rather we adopt the norms in releasing the dogs. The dogs are released in the area from where they are caught for sterlisation,” Pardeshi said. “ If we release the dogs in some foreign territory, the dogs will fight and kill each other. We have launched a programme in which the dogs from a particular area are caught, vaccinated and released in the same area.”
The KCB plans to write to the corporation on the issue. “There should be a memorandum between the respective cantonment boards and the corporations that they will not release dogs in eachother’s territory. We plan to write to the PMC advising it not to release the dogs,” said Bhande. KCB security officer B D Farakte said, “The matter is now being looked into.” Bhande pointed out that with the PMC releasing dogs in the cantonment area, the KCB’s sterlisation programme will be hit. “For the last 6-7 months, we have sterlised as many as 2,000 dogs. The entire dog sterilisation programme is expected to be complete in another 6-7 months in case the dogs are not released into our territory.”
Pardeshi said the cantonment board should release dogs from where they have been picked. Bhande claimed they are already following the policy. “The dogs are being vaccinated for zoonotic disease and our dogs carry the marks to identify that they have been sterilised,” he said.
