lokayuktha....

[Guest guest]

this made head lines in todays papre pls reflect

 

Eliminate stray dogs, Lokayukta

tells BMP

 

DH News Service, BANGALORE, March 11

 

Giving a dressing down to the Bangalore Mahanagara

Palike Commissioner for his inability to control the

burgeoning stray dog population, Karnataka Lokayutka

Justice N Venkatachala today directed the authorities

to ‘summarily destroy’ stray and ownerless dogs in

Bangalore City.

 

In his 65-page judgment on a complaint filed by Mr

Dhananjaya of Stray Dog Free Bangalore, Justice

Venkatachala also cancelled the BMP resolution (dated

August 9, 2002) on increasing the number of

organisations under the animal birth control (ABC)

programme from three to 10 and starting of an

anti-rabies campaign.

 

Lashing out at the officialdom, the Lokayukta, who

referred to the growing incidence of deaths due to

rabid dog bites, observed, “Dog menace, faced by

Bangaloreans, is the worst of its kind and the

authorities are taking no tangible action to save the

people of Bangalore city from this menace which is

bringing danger to their lives and the lives of their

kith and kin and particularly children and also the

visitors of Bangalore, who may walk on the streets of

Bangalore or in the areas of Bangalore.”

 

Going a step further, he said, “the dog menace is

probably ignored by the authorities and no serious

action is taken for elimination of stray dogs, because

the officers or the authorities move in motor cars and

other vehicles.

 

The victims of this stray dog bites and rabies are

those poor classes of persons living in Bangalore city

in areas including those of slums, where the persons

concerned and children will have no occasion to use

footwear”.

 

Referring to the BMP authorities taking cover under

lame excuses of directions and threats by Union

Ministry for Urban Development and Environment &

Forests, Justice Venkatachala observed, this kind of

disregard by ministers and officers of Central

government to the laws in the country, appears to have

become responsible for the ever increasing stray dog

population in several cities and towns across the

country.

 

He asked the State government to immediately direct

the BMP Commissioner to ignore these unwarranted

threats by the then minister for Urban

 

Development and Poverty Alleviation Jagmohan (July 3,

2000), S K Varma, deputy secretary, Ministry of Social

Justice and Empowerment (August 10, 2000) and Ms Veena

Upadhyaya, joint secretary, Ministry of Environment &

Forests (November 18, 2002).

 

Indeed, such unwarranted threatening letters have

become lame excuses for commissioners, such as the

commissioner of the BMP, not only to avoid their

statutory obligations of destroying stray and

ownerless dogs in cities or towns covered under their

respective Municipal Acts, but also for doling out

public money to animal rights organisations, in the

guise of implementing the ABC Rules, which are ultra

vires the provisions of Animals Act. He further said

that the destruction of stray dogs in lethal chambers

does not amount to violation of provisions of Animals

Act, 1960.

 

The Lokayukta has also directed the appointment of an

officer to monitor destruction of stray dogs, if the

BMP commissioner failed in his duty to do so.

 

 

 

Activists criticised

 

BANGALORE, March 11 (DHNS)

Karnataka Lokayukta Justice N Venkatachala today

criticised animal welfare organisations, especially

those involved in the Animal Birth Control programme,

for their ‘doublespeak’ on stray dogs as they are

opposed to the killing of stray dogs, but speak of the

high incidence of rabies in India at the same time. He

noted that cruelty to animals under the Animals Act,

1960, does not apply to destruction of stray and

ownerless dogs and observed in his judgment, “I am

duty bound to refer to such material so that the

so-called stray dog lovers in the country, most of

whom are fortunate enough to move in their limousines,

may not try to create the wrong impression in the

minds of gullible poor people of our country that no

harm could come to humans living and moving in

Bangalore by its stray and ownerless dogs, as they

have sought to do with me.”

animal LOVERS TO MOVE HC: Unhappy with the Lokayukta’s

judgment on stray dog menace in the City, animal

activists have said they would challenge the judgment

in the High Court. Mrs Brinda Nandakumar, Trustee of

Cupa, an NGO, told Deccan Herald that the activists

would definitely challenge the judgment.

 

 

 

 

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