City police gear up to welcome new guests in the Dog Squad

The Kolkata Police are ready with the necessary infrastructure to welcome the new guests of its dog squad whose main task would be to ensure security of the state secretariat, Nabanna.

Soon after the decision was taken to set up a separate dog squad only for the security of Nabanna, the police had initiated working on it and have almost completed the construction of the kennels to accommodate the additional dogs who are going to be the members of the squad soon.

The Kolkata Police have constructed around 12 more kennels in addition to the existing ones to accommodate the new dogs in the Police Training School (PTS). At present, there are 36 dogs in the Dog Squad of the Kolkata Police.

According to a senior officer of the section of the city police, if everything goes as planned, they would be buying 12 more dogs to set up a separate squad for Nabanna. One dog will be kept in each of the kennels. So additional 14 kennels have been constructed, keeping two extra.

"Though there is a proposal to set up some kennels near Nabanna, we have to create necessary infrastructure in PTS as well for accommodation of dogs wherever they go to perform their duty," the officer said adding that they will be buying dogs of age group within 69 months and will be sending them for training.

The dogs will be taken to Gwalior where they will get trained by the Border Security Force (BSF). Soon after returning from training, they will be engaged to carry out frisking

operations in Nabanna on a daily basis.

"This time we have decided to buy dogs of within 69 months as we want to send them for training as early as possible. So that they can be deployed for duty without much delay," he said adding they would buy rottweilers or alsatian which would depend on the availability.

The dogs get tired in travelling long distances and as a result, their efficiency level also goes down. Thus, the concerned officers take all

necessary steps to maintain proper health of the dogs specially during summer.

During the days of summer, the dogs undergo health checkups at least twice a day during which their body temperature is also being checked. They are also taken for

swimming in a pool inside the PTS. Moreover, relaxation is also given in training. Instead of making them work for long hours, they are given rest in between.