KMC starts massive street dog sterilisation drive

Kolkata: For the first time, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is undertaking sterilisation and vaccination drive of the street dogs in all the 144 wards of the civic body.

The programme that is be held in association with the state Animal Husbandry department kicked off from the New Market area in central Kolkata on Friday.

"Our programme for sterilising and vaccinating street dogs will continue for a period of six months and each ward will have two camps. We have set a target of vaccination for all street dogs.

25 of them will be picked up from each of the camp and will be taken for sterilising at our two dog pounds located at Entally and Dhapa," Member Mayor-In-Council (Health) Atin Ghosh said.

The health department of the KMC has already developed the infrastructure for registering anti-rabies vaccine to people in

16 centres across the city, one each in all the 16 boroughs of the civic body.

Ghosh expressed his displeasure over the work done by the different NGOs working in this regard. "It was in 2011 when it came to my notice that the NGOs working with the state government in these two dog pounds were not at all serious about their jobs.

The audit conducted by ARD department revealed a lot of irregularities. So we took over the charge of these dog pounds in 2013 and gradually developed their infrastructure. However, since then not even a single NGO came and joined hands with us.

We are working with the advice and help of a number of animal lovers and will continue in this way," Ghosh said

It may be mentioned that deaths due to dog bites in the city has been zero since 2013. In 2011, 43 people died of alleged animal bites.

Baishali Dalmiya, MLA from Bally in Howrah who is also known for her works as a social worker was selected as an adviser to the programme on Thursday.