Deadly stray dog attacks continue to haunt citizens

Rangareddy: In the wake of a recent gruesome incident at Shamshabad wherein a pack of stray dogs killed a minor boy, a serious debate stoke-up among the people who raised concerns over the very purpose of the veterinary wing in GHMC. They argue that the wing is blatantly failing in serving its objectives.

In a chilling incident, a pack of stray dogs dragged a sleeping boy out of his hut and was killed brutally on January 1, at Shamshabad area under Rangareddy district.

Finding the boy screaming under the clutches of canines, the local people rushed to rescue him and even informed his father Surya Kumar. However, the boy was found dead by the time his father reached to rescue him.

Unfortunately, this is not the only case that left the people furious over the ruthless dog attacks on children that keep on creating a climate of fear among the locals.

There were nearly a dozen cases from different parts of the city and surrounding areas reported during the last one year.

Despite such incidents taking place with regular intervals, the officials at local municipalities as well as at GHMC have found hiding behind silly reasons sans any proper approach to address the life threatening issue.

"Despite regular complaints, municipal staff in Jalpally work in a way that leaves no impact over the ground as stray dogs keep on moving in a pack every day and attacking the people especially the children every often," rued, Abdul Bari.

"The residents of Shastripuram inRajendra Nagar have been regularly raising complaints with GHMC about dogs menace," said MAH Asif, a resident of the colony. However, he said, every complaint reaches a closure without any sustainable solution which gets compounded by the ever-increasing canine population leading to its unabated attacks on people.

When enquired about the Animal Birth Control (ABC) drives necessary to check the dog bite menace, the GHMC officials even found taking the serious issue for granted citing that they are busy in back to back meetings with the officials and programmes.

"We are busy in back to back meetings and programmes we were assigned as well as meetings and awareness programmes regarding the schemes launched by the government," said the Chief Veterinary Officer GHMC, Abdul Vakeel.

When asked to provide the details of the measures being taken up under ABC measures to protect the lives of the people, the officer said "We did our job perfectly according to the orders from the Supreme Court, the High Court as well as the government of India." However, he simply avoided explaining further about ABC drives and the measures being taken up to prevent canine attacks on the local people especially the children.

Sanitary Inspector Shamshabad Municipality Laxmaiah said, "We are carrying out regular ABC drives in the Shamshabad municipality. We even roped in a NGO to carry out drives on a regular basis. However, despite all the efforts the gruesome incident happened, which is very unfortunate."