Dog sterilisation drive to restart in Chandigarh soon

Chandigarh, August 9

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After over a year, dog sterilisation will be restarted in the city as five agencies have been cleared in the technical bid. One of these is expected to be assigned the work in a week.

As a stopgap arrangement, the MC House had recently asked officials to carry out a drive through its own staff as the corporation could not find any takers for its sterilisation drive. However, the House had also conveyed that before starting the work, one last attempt should be made to hire an agency to carry out the sterilisation work.

According to the MC Medical Officer of Health, Dr Amrit Warring, five companies have shown interest in the tendring process and work will soon be allotted to one of these. The contract of an agency, which was earlier doing the job, had expired last year. After that, the corporation floated tenders several times, but remained unsuccessful.

Local residents, meanwhile, are fed up of the stray dog menace. “Stray dogs keep chasing vehicles in our locality. There have also been cases of dog bite here,” said Karam Singh, a resident of Sector 44.

According to the MC, 14,500 dogs have been sterilised since 2015 when the drive was started. The two dedicated dispensaries in Sector 19 and 38 get about 300 dog-bite cases per month. Patients from other states also come here for treatment. Many other patients receive treatment at other government and private hospitals in the city. — TNS