Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 1

The National Human Rights Commission has asked the District Magistrate to take appropriate action on a complaint regarding menace of stray dogs in the city.

Following the death of a five-year-old girl, who was suffering from rabies-like symptoms, The Council of RTI Activists had submitted a complaint about the menace.

The authority concerned has been directed to take appropriate action within eight weeks and to inform the complainant of the same. Earlier, Rohit Sabharwal, president of the council, had filed a complaint to the commission against the Municipal Corporation for allegedly staking lives and violating the human rights by not controlling the increasing problem of stray dogs. He had alleged that a five-year-old child lost her life due to MC’s failure to provide relief from the menace of stray dogs.

Sabharwal alleged that the civic body failed to implement rules according to the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, and failed to ensure registration of dogs. “As per the law, every registered dog shall wear a collar which shall be attached to a metal token to be issued by the registration authority, but nothing is done here. There is no check on rabid dogs in the city,” he said.

In 2015, the civic body had launched the first phase of THE sterilisation of stray dogs project, costing Rs 2 crore, under which the MC had to sterilise 25,000 stray dogs. The civic body then launched second phase of the project, under which sterilisation of thousands of more stray dogs is to be done.

“No major impact of dog sterilisation has been seen in the city so far. The sterilisation of dogs can control the population,” said a member of the Council of RTI activists.

Notably, after the death of the five-year-old, the MC had lifted seven dogs from Sarabha Nagar and put them in quarantine. The officials had claimed that they had not found any dog suffering from rabies.

Another man attacked

Following an attack on a man by a stray dog in Maharaj Nagar on Monday, the MC team searched for the dog in the area on Tuesday. Sources said a stray dog attacked a man and bit on his hand, severing one of his fingers. The injured person, identified as Sumit Khanna, was rushed to the Dayanand Medical College and Hospital.

Kiran Khanna, wife of the injured, said Sumit has undergone a surgery. “The dog came running towards Sumit and bit on his hand. My husband lost his one finger in the attack. We are dog lovers but we want the Municipal Corporation to search for such stray dogs to avoid any untoward incident,” she said.

Dr YP Singh said they conducted survey in the area, but did not find the suspected dog. “We will visit the injured person’s house to get more details,” he said.