The dog was chased away by two bystanders who threw stones at it (Representative Image) | Photo Credit: BCCL

Jaipur: Negligence on the part of the municipal corporation in Rajasthan's state capital has resulted in a nine-year-old boy fighting for his life. A resident of Ganesh Nagar, Daksh Jain was attacked by a stray dog on Wednesday night when he was returning home after playing at a nearby park. Daksh is currently being treated at the intensive care unit (ICU) of a private hospital in Mansarovar area of Jaipur.

The boy's condition is serious because he sustained deep injuries on his neck caused by the dog's sharp teeth. Daksh was going to bring a ball from our house to play with it the park and had no idea that the canine would attack him, said the boy's father. The father also claims that this is not the first time such an incident has happened in the locality and blames Jaipur Municipal Corporation for their failure to tackle the issue effectively.

Ashish Chhabra, the boy's father, told Times of India that a housemaid and a dairy truck employee saw the boy being attacked and pelted stones at the dog to chase him away. They saved my boy's life, added Chhabra. Eyewitnesses said that the dairy truck employee, a differently-abled man, managed to scare the dog away after which the canine left the young boy in a pool of blood and fled. Chhabra also said that Daksh has been administered injections to avoid infectious diseases and the doctors want to clean his wounds properly before tendering stitches to his wounds.

Locals say that three such rabid dog attacks have taken place in the area in the past two months. We called JMC after the incident on Wednesday but there was no response from the civic body, claimed residents. However, JMC on Thursday directed a team of dog catchers to visit Ganesh Nagar. The team reportedly captured 10 dogs from the area on the basis of complaints made by the residents.

In March of this year, a rabid stray went on a biting spree in Dashmesh Colony of Chandigarh. The dog attacked almost a dozen bystanders and other stray dogs. It even mauled a two-year-old boy before angry locals beat him to death. Locals at the time told media outlets that despite several pleas to the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (CMC) in this regard, no action was taken to sterilise or capture rabid dogs roaming the city streets.