Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Former minister Gopal Bhargava has said that the breeding of dogs should be ended.
Bhargava made this sensational statement while participating in the debate on the menace posed by the stray dogs and rising dog bite cases in the state assembly on Tuesday.
Congress MLA Atif Aqueel had moved the call attention motion over increasing dog bite cases in the state capital.
Bhargava said that the central government was giving free rations to 80 crore people for their survival. On the other hand, there were prosperous people who spent Rs 2000 to 4000 per day on diet of pet dogs per day. In such a scenario, what was the importance of dogs and the need to raise them, he asked.
Earlier, Aqueel said that in six months, there had been around 10,000 dog bite cases. A few children had also died due to dog bite. He questioned that if dogs were being sterilised, how come their population was increasing.
Urban administration and housing minister Kailash Vijayvargiya conceded that there was shortage of Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres and experts to control the population of dogs.
The government was making efforts to increase the numbers of ABC centres in the state, he said, admitting that sterilisation was not enough given the large population of dogs and hence experts would be brought from outside to increase sterilisation centres.
The dog population was also increasing as a female dog gave birth to eight to 10 puppies twice a year. Meanwhile, it was also scientifically proved that if meat and eggs were served to dogs, they became aggressive, he said.
He claimed that it was mainly due to hunger that dogs started to behave aggressively. There was an old tradition which mandated that the first chapati of a household s kitchen should be given to a cow and the last chapati to a dog.
This tradition might prove helpful in containing the dog menace, he said, adding that in his colony, people adhered to the tradition and there was no dog problem.
In the meantime, health minister Rajendra Shukla asserted that there was no shortage of anti-rabies vaccine in hospitals. Sometimes, dog bite victims approached the hospital late and the case became complicated.
MLA Rajendra Mandloi said that in his constituency Barwani, three youths died due to dog bite. He demanded compensation to their kin.
