Not enough vets for speedy dog sterilisation, says Vijayvargiya

Bhopal: With the issue of stray dogs creating a stir on the first day of the Budget session of the Assembly, the MP govt on Tuesday admitted that there is a shortage of veterinary doctors, which could be a reason for population remaining uncontrolled in the state. "We have increased the number of sterilisation centres and have begun sterilising stray dogs -- as per Supreme Court guidelines – not just in Bhopal but in every municipal corporation and municipality. But, there is a need for both NGOs and veterinary doctors. At present, there is a shortage of veterinary surgeons. We will try to increase the number of veterinary doctors and bring the dog population under control. It is our responsibility," said urban administration minister Kailash Vijayvargiya. Vijayvargiya was responding to the issue raised by Congress MLA from Bhopal (north) Atif Aqueel as a call attention motion. Aqueel argued that the dog population is continuously increasing in Bhopal and while Rs 2 crore is annually allocated for sterilisation, neither is the dog population decreasing nor are the dog bite cases coming under control. Congress MLA Sohanlal Valmik claimed that children and elderly are the worst victims. "Dogs are killing them," Valmik said. Vijayvargiya informed the House that there are four departments involved in dealing with the issue of controlling dog population and dog bite cases -- urban administration, animal husbandry, health and panchayat and rural development department. "We work together to address this issue, and our additional chief secretary discussed it with all department officials and all district collectors recently," the minister said. "This is certainly a serious issue. But a report I have received from the health department has not reported any death due to dog bite this year. If you are aware of any case, let us know. The govt would provide whatever assistance it could," he added. "It's true that their reproductive capacity is high and we would have to increase our sterilisation capacity accordingly. But the problem is that there is an extreme shortage of expert veterinary surgeons in Madhya Pradesh. Also, the Supreme Court's guidelines are so strict that we need to release them from wherever we intercept them. They have the right to live where they have been living," he said. However, Aqueel hinted at a design behind the govt's move to address the problem, saying "the minister wanted more funds allocated for sterilisation of dogs so that there could be extensive corruption." "We know why and how the population of dogs is increasing. The number has increased threefold since 2003," the Congress MLA said. Vijayvargiya, along with the Speaker and BJP MLAs reacted strongly to this comment. Replying to Aqueel's statement, minister for panchayats and rural development Prahlad Singh Patel said, "We can say that population of many others is also increasing. Would you like to hear that?" "We had a tradition where we used to give the first bread to the cow and the last to the dog. A dog gets aggressive when it is hungry. I want to use this serious platform to tell people across the country that dogs have always been our friend, and we ourselves provoked them through our negligence," Vijayvargiya said.