MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council is toying with the idea of setting up a dog shelter at the Animal Husbandry Hospital Complex at Sonsodo to house stray dogs as per the Supreme Court directions.
Margao Municipal Chief Officer Madhu Narvekar has been told to write a letter to the Animal Husbandry Minister and the director to hand over a portion of the hospital land to the civic body to set up a dog shelter.
This became evident when the issue of stray dogs was discussed with Margao MLA and PWD Minister Digambar Kamat during his fortnightly Tuesday darbar in the Margao Municipal building.
Sources said the issue of stray dogs was discussed between the PWD Minister, MMC Chief Officer, Madhu Narvekar, MMC Chairperson Damu Shirodkar and the President of city-based animal welfare NGO on Tuesday.
The Margao civic body is required to identify land to set up the shelter for the stray dogs in view of the Supreme Court’s directions to the local bodies to round up stray dogs from in and around schools, hospitals, playgrounds, besides bus stands and railway stations.
Though the Margao Municipal Council has land at Sonsodo at its disposal, sources said the civic body is seeking land to set up the dog shelter in the Animal husbandry property behind the existing veterinary hospital at Sonsodo.
Incidentally, the existing dog shelter run by a city-based NGO is packed to capacity with stray dogs for want of support from the Margao civic body. Though a year has passed since the MMC had inked an agreement with the NGO for the implementation of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme, the exercise has hit a block, with the NGO even complaining of not receiving the payments for sterilising the strays.
The PWD Minister said the MMC will immediately write a letter to the Animal Husbandry Director to hand over a small portion of land to set up the dog shelter, promising to do the follow up at the government level.
