High Court directs state to send SOP for feeding stray dogs to all civic bodies

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the state to send to all municipal bodies the standard operating procedure (SOP) for feeding stray dogs in the state.

The SOP was submitted at the Bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh on Wednesday by the state. The court directed it should be sent to all municipal bodies across the state. The SOP states that feeding stray dogs needs to be done only at “designated areas” within a “specific time period” in two slots that may be once before 7 am and once after 7 pm for about two hours each. The local civic authorities will suitably earmark areas in every ward as “designated areas” for caregivers to feed the community dogs. The SOP prohibited feeding beyond the designated areas as specified by the local civic authorities. The SOP also mentions the food one should give and food that should be avoided. The “designated areas” should not be adjacent to crowded areas but located in such a manner that they do not compromise the standard width of any road or footpath or the front portion of any individual building.

It states that feeding beyond “designated areas” may attract the provision of punishment for depositing or throwing any solid waste in contravention of extant laws, referred to in section 272 of the West Bengal Municipal Act, 1993, or section 300k of the West Bengal Municipal Corporation Act, 2006, as the case may be.