Stray dogs & pigs terrify residents in Secunderabad

Karkhana: The residents of Gruhalakshmi Colony in Secunderabad have been facing problems from stray dogs and pigs. They complain that the cantonment authorities are not responding to any of their issues. “Stray dogs menace has become a problem in our colony. We can’t go out without holding a stick in the morning. Children and senior citizens are scared to walk alone on the roads. There is always a danger that stray dogs come and attack us in groups. Once in a while, dog squad comes and catches the dogs. They vaccinate the dogs and leave them in the colonies once again. But, this will not prevent us from dog bites,” said Dr Vyasamoorthy, the president of the Gruhalakshmi Colony Welfare Association.  “As cantonment doesn’t have dog squad, we need to borrow them from the GHMC. Whenever, we try to reach GHMC, they say that they are overbooked,” he added.

“There are a lot of pigs in the colony. Pigs shouldn’t be allowed inside the residential areas, but no one is taking care of the issue. There are chances of contracting swine flu in this weather. People will come and take action only if 5 to 10 people get swine flu. What is the purpose of reacting to the issue after the loss is done? Officials should make arrangements to control the pigs in the colonies,” said Subba Rao, a committee member. “There is an open drainage in the colony. Puppies fall in the drainage and die. No one will come to take their bodies. The whole place stinks.  The nearby chemical factories throw chemical waste into the water. The water comes into our colony drainages. From 4:30 am to 7:30 am, we can’t walk outside because of the smell emanating from the chemical waste. We complained about the issue in the local police station, but there is no response from them,” said Sarath Chandran.

“We lodged a number of complaints with the cantonment, but there is no response from them.  Cantonment CEO never responded to any of our complaints. We called dog squad members, but they also never bothered to come,” said Bala Krishna Reddy. “We tried to build a swachh colony. Though we don’t have any garbage collection point, we made a fence, and we make sure that no one throws garbage in our colony. The people from other colonies who are irked by the rules imposed in the colony come in the nights and deliberately dispose their garbage on the roads. The number of dogs is also increasing because of the garbage on the roads,” he added.