Dog sterilisation a big sham: Corporators

Mumbai: Corporators have slammed BMC’s dog sterilisation programme, terming it a “big sham”. They have also raised questions about the civic body’s Rs 10 crore expenditure on dog sterilisation over the past two decades, calling it a sheer waste of public money.

According to civic officials, more than 2.80 lakh stray dogs have been sterilised and immunised since 1998 with the help of NGOs at a cost of Rs 10 crore. However, there are still more than one lakh stray dogs that have not been sterilised and are roaming the city streets. BMC plans to spend a further Rs 15.56 crore on sterilisation of 1.02 lakh stray dogs for the next three years (April 1017 to March 2020). According to corporators however, the sterilisation programme has failed to deliver results. Shiv Sena corporator Rajul Patel said, “While BMC is undertaking sterilisation through NGOs, where are the results? The city still has so many stray dogs and in many areas, their population is extremely high. They cause a nuisance to locals.”

Supporting Patel, another Sena corporator Mangesh Satamkar said that stray dogs had instilled fear among city residents, many of whom were scared while returning home during night hours.

Congress corporator Asif Zakeria said, “Taking into account the huge money given by BMC to NGOs to sterilise dogs, the stray population should have reduced but is growing instead.”

According to the dog census conducted in January 2014, out of the 95,172 dogs at the time, 25,933 stray dogs had not been sterilised. Of the 25,933, 14,671 were male and 11,262 were female.