No plan to renew MoU with NGO involved in birth control programme
A solution to the burning issue of strays has eluded the Margao civic body till date.
MARGAO
Is the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme not on the agenda of the Margao City Fathers and municipal babus, and the powers that be controlling the affairs of the civic body?
When the stray dog population is on the rise in the commercial capital, the burning issue ought to have gained priority on the civic body’s agenda. The ground reality, however, appears different.
Otherwise, consider this: Curtains will come down on Year 2022 in five days, but the civic body has no plan to ink a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the NGOs involved with stray dogs before the year end. Take note, it will be two years on December 2022 since the MoU with the local NGO had expired, but the Margao Municipality has shown no urgency to either ink a new MoU or take over the entire ABC programme from the animal lovers to execute the job departmentally.
Since January 1, 2021 till date the NGO had been continuing with the ABC programme in the city to ensure that the programme does not come to an abrupt halt, in the bargain hoping the civic body would compensate by way of payment of fees and use of other logistics in carrying out the operations.
Sadly, the NGO has been doing the rounds of the civic body for payments for the services rendered, as the civic body is believed to have not cleared the payments for the last several months, since May-June 2021.
Inquiries have revealed that the MoU with the animal welfare NGO had lapsed on December 31, 2020 when the civic body was headed by Pooja Naik. Given that the MMC was heading for the civic polls, then Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes had maintained that the Municipality will not act in haste, but will leave the matter to the new council to decide.
Pooja’s successor, Lyndon Pereira, who took over the reigns of the civic body, also showed no urgency in putting the ABC programme back on the tracks. If Pooja failed to put in place a new MoU, the issue did not merit serious attention from Lyndon during his one and half year stint in office. While Lyndon did take an initiative to get a NGO to hold an awareness programme for the City Fathers and babus, he eventually left the office sans inking a new MoU or roping in a new NGO to carry forward the ABC programme.
More than two months down the lane after taking over the reigns of office on October 12, incumbent Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar has still not outlined his plans to tackle the burning stray dog issue. Shirodkar had his first Council meeting, but the issue of stray dogs did not find mention in his meeting agenda. It’s still unclear whether the Chief Officer or the Municipal Administration has kept the Municipal Chairperson in the loop over the fact that it would be two years on December 31, 2022 since the MoU with the NGO handling the strays has not been renewed.
Incidentally, the NGO has been continuing its activities with the available resources since the last two years, notwithstanding that MMC has not renewed the MoU or inked a new agreement. “It is out of love for the animals and the strays that we have been continuing our activities. We have been submitting our bills from time to time, but the civic body has not cleared our bills since June 2021’, informed a representative of the NGO.
“We do now know what lies in store for us. For, we have to arrange funds to the tune of Rs one lakh to meet the bare minimum expenses, ranging from salaries and for maintenance of the dog shelter. The MMC is required to pay us Rs 70,000 per month as per the MoU, but we have not received any payment since June 2021”, the NGO stated.
