Will the rising population of stray dogs in Salcete in general and Margao in particular serve as a wakeup call for the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) to put the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme back on the tracks in the commercial capital?
This question assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the fact that the MMC’s ABC programme has gone totally haywire for reasons best known to the City Fathers and the municipal babus.
Issue on backburner
Otherwise, consider this. It’s now over two years since the MMC’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an animal welfare NGO expired, but the civic body has showed no urgency in inking a new agreement or rope a new agency to implement the ABC programme.
As many as three different Chairpersons and a host of chief officers have presided over the affairs of the MMC between 2020 till date. That’s not all. Power equation in the civic body has shifted from Dovondem, the headquarters of Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai to Malbhat, the official residence of Congress-turned-BJP Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, but the stray dog issue seemed not on the priority list of the bureaucrats as well as politicians.
For, the MoU between the MMC and the animal welfare NGO had expired on December 31, 2020, when the civic body was headed by Goa Forward-backed chairperson Pooja Naik.
Post-2021 municipal polls, Goa Forward retained power in the civic body when its councillor Lyndon Pereira assumed office as the new Chairperson. Incumbent BJP-backed Margao civic chief Damu Shirodkar will be completing seven months in office on May 12 after taking over the reigns of Chairperson, but the stray dog issues continues to remain on the backburner till date.
Logistics
That’s not all. If the stray dog population is on the rise, there’s been no correspondence increased in the infrastructure and logistics required to handle the menace.
Consider this. It’s been a decade now since the MMC had opened a 25-cage dog shelter close to Sonsodo. The rising dog population seemed to have not spurred the civic body to increase the number of cages at the dog shelter.
The ageing van
The ageing dog catching van is another instance of municipal apathy in taking the ABC programme to the logical conclusion. With the ageing dog catching van often breaking down, the NGO has stopped using it for the transportation of the dogs to the shelter after they are caught by the dog catchers.
“We had terrible experiences whenever the van break down and we are forced to shift the stray dogs from the van to the pick-up van,” informed a member of the NGO.
Bills
What’s interesting to note is that while it’s now over two years since the MoU expired, the NGO has been submitting bills for the work carried out during this period. However, it has been pointed out that the bills from 2021 till date have not been approved under one pretext or other, with a member of the NGO wondering how are they supposed to carry out the ABC programme in the city.
In fact, with no funds forthcoming to pay the salaries and wages, the NGO has pruned the manpower which was engaged in dog catch and other activities.
Inquiries by The Goan has only revealed that proposals mooted by the civic body in recent months to eope in a new NGO by floating tenders seemed to have not found favour with the powers that be.
