These dogs rule the Sector 10 streets effectively.

CHANDIGARH: The residents of Sector 10, senior citizens especially, are scared of the stray dogs that have taken over their streets because the municipal corporation kept ignoring the problem.

They have filed a number of complaints with the authorities on this issue but they found no solution yet. People have stopped going to the neighbourhood parks for evening stroll. Their only option is to visit the prominent gardens where the guards keep the stray dogs out. During a visit to Sector 10, a TOI team found out from the residents that they were fed up with ringing up the civic authorities time and again whenever the stray dogs got ferocious. Even the resident welfare association (RWA) and Foswac (Federation of Sector Welfare Associations of Chandigarh) have tried to plead with the MC for a solution.

A resident of Sector 10 told TOI: "Earlier the dog population in the sector was under control and the canines did not attack the visitors. But for the past few months, the situation has gone worse and dogs now attack the passersby. Residents, senior citizens especially, avoid stepping into the neighbourhood parks in the evening because of the fear of these stray dogs. There is school nearby and even its children have stopped visit the neighbourhood parks in the afternoon to play, all because the dogs started attacking them."

Sector-10 RWA organising secretary Gurnam Singh, who has raised the issue in several Foswac meetings also, said: "Every time when I take my car out from the roadside parking, I have to check if is a stray dogs is resting under the vehicle. In the past, there have been incidents in these localities where dogs sitting under the cars pounced on the car owner all of a sudden when disturbed. We have a well-maintained neighbourhood park but the fear of stray dogs has rendered it of no use."

He said that he had lodged repeated complaints with the area councillor, who had even visited the area. "But he does not have any solution to the problem," says Gurnam Singh. Even though the MC teams visit the area to sterilise the stray dogs, that does not solve the problem, since the canines keep terrorising the residents.

In June, three stray dogs mauled a one-and-a-halfyear-old boy to death in a park in Sector 18-D. The mother of the boy who works as a maid had left him with one of her acquaintances running a tea shop near the park, asking him to look after him while she completed her chores at a house nearby.

Ayush, a resident of Palsora, was playing along with three other children in the park when the canines attacked them. While the other kids fled, he could not run away. By the time the tea vendor and his mother came to his help, he was badly bitten.

