MARGAO
It’s exactly a year and two months since Margao Municipal Council’s Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme has hit a big block. Days and months have passed, but the civic body is in no hurry to either rope in a new agency to implement the ABC programme or extend the agreement with the existing NGO.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the civic body and the South Goa Welfare Trust for Animals (SGWTA) had ended on December 31, 2020. It’s now a year and two months, but neither the MoU with the NGO stands extended nor the civic body has unveiled any plans how to take the ABC programme forward.
The NGO had stopped work on the ABC programme, prompting the civic body to release four-month payments. SGWTA is still awaiting the MMC to release its payments in respect of 14 months.
Handling the stray animals had found a mention on the election manifesto of the key players, including Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai. In his Fatorda centric manifesto, Sardesai had promised to put a system in place to tackle the strays head on.
Sadly, the Goa Forward-Congress backed Margao Municipal Council seemed dragging its feet on how go to about the ABC programme. Otherwise, how does one explain the failure of the civic body to extend the existing MoU with the NGO or ink a new agreement with a new agency to take the ABC forward?
A month ago, a meeting of the local Monitoring Committee under the Animal Birth Control Rules (Dogs), 2001 was attended by the MMC Chairperson Lyndon Pereira, Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes, besides other officials. It was decided to place the Monitoring Committee before the Council for approval. The bigger question, however, remains unanswered “ how is the Margao civic body going to address the burning issue of ever increasing population of stray dogs in the commercial capital?
A MMC official informed that a proposal would be placed at the next meeting of the Council, tentatively after March 10 when the withdrawal of the election code of conduct, to invite Expression of Interest (EoI) from prospective agencies involved in ABC programme elsewhere in the State.
The official has also mulled a survey of dogs in the commercial capital, to ascertain the number of dogs sterilised over a period of time and the canines that need to be brought under the ABC purview in a time-bound manner.
“We would like the agency to carry out de-worming, sterilisation operations & anti rabies vaccine for stray dogs as per Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001. It will be decided whether the agency is ready to take over the entire operations, including dog catching, upon the payment of a prescribed fees per dog,” the official said.
For the moment, SGWTA continues to maintain the ABC operations in the city inspite of the fact that the MoU with the civic body had ended over a year ago. The ongoing operations, however, has been hit by absence of logistics. The dog shelter is almost saturated with no cages left to shelter the dogs after sterilisation, adversely affecting the ABC programme.
“What the commercial capital is looking forward is a system in place whereby citizens will call the civic body or the agency on a dedicated helpline to attend to the strays. There’s no such system in place,” remarked a citizen.
She added: “The civic body seemed to have totally abdicated its responsibility in handling the stray dogs by passing the buck on the NGOs or the agencies. The High Court is clear that handling the strays is the prime responsibility of the local bodies. Somehow, the local bodies have not been serious in taking the ABC programme forward.”
