The Hindu                    14.03.2013

More vehicles to deal with stray dog menace

canine conundrumThe vans will help in speedy response to residents’ complaints, especially in the added areas —Photo: Special Arrangement.

For residents of the city, who are weary of the menace of stray dogs, Chennai Corporation has some welcome news.

The civic body has procured eight new vehicles for animal birth control measures in the city. So far, the new vehicles have been used for catching 121 dogs for animal birth control. Each of the 15 zones of the city will have a vehicle to cope with stray dog menace. Councillors have been reporting stray dog menace at the council meeting in the past few months. But the efforts of the civic body to strengthen animal birth control programme did not have the desired results.

After the expansion of the city limits, the number of calls made to the helpline for stray dog control increased considerably. The new vehicles are expected to increase the number of birth control operations to 4,500 from 2,000 every month.

The lack of vehicles had hindered the response of the Corporation to the complaints of residents pertaining to stray dogs. In the past four years, the civic body claims to have caught around 70,000 dogs of which over 65,000 have been sterilised.

As many contract labourers fail to turn up during emergencies, the civic body had also planned to make use of the services of NGOs to tackle such problems. Most of the stray dog menace complaints are from expanded areas, with 1.5 lakh stray dogs.

In 2012, the civic body performed sterilisation on about 19,000 dogs, an increase of 5,000 when compared to that of 2011. The officials will follow up on complaints received on the Chennai Corporation helpline 1913. After increase in number of vehicles, the challenge in finding dog-catchers remains the only hindrance to animal birth control in the city. Corporation officials said it was difficult to find people even after the rate per dog caught has been increased to Rs. 50.

The Hindu                    14.03.2013

Court summons civic official

Special Correspondent 

The Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday summoned the Rameswaram Municipal Commissioner to reply to a public interest litigation petition filed by a woman-lawyer alleging that visitors to Ramanathaswamy Temple had to suffer from contagious diseases owing to “nauseating, annoying and utmost unhygienic” conditions around the temple.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Chitra Venkataraman and Justice S. Vimala directed the Commissioner to be present in the court on March 19.

The order was passed after the advocates representing the petitioner and the temple made contrary claims over the maintenance of the shrine.

Both of them produced photographs to substantiate their respective claims.

In her affidavit, the petitioner, M. Vennila (43), said that she visited the temple on May 5, 2012 along with her family and was shocked to see the temple’s Agni Theertham polluted with human excreta discharged from public toilets constructed close to it.

Her family had to be hospitalised after taking a dip in the Theertham, believed to purify human soul and body as per Hindu sanathana dharma.

She claimed that hundreds of other pilgrims also faced a similar plight with the only exception being VIPs who were accorded special treatment. She also complained of the menace of “brokers” who demanded exorbitant amount, apart from government fixed charges, from the devotees for performing religious customary practices such as getting the holy water sprinkled on them.

“Exorbitant amount of money is demanded and procured by undue influence and force. Left with no other option, the poor devotees part away with whatever cash they have to heartless brokers who share the collection with the authorities and their henchmen,” the petitioner added.