Srinagar, Sep 8: Public money seems literally be going to the dogs. At a time when Srinagar is crying of underdevelopment, the government has started spending public money meant for City welfare on “rehabilitation” of stray packs.
 To begin with the Srinagar Municipal Corporation is constructing dog pounds at a cost of around Rs one crore at Shuhama while some fifty lakh rupees have already been spent out of the money meant for construction of drains and other civic facilities for the Srinagarites.
 Observers said the government should fund the dog pound project through some other resources, which don’t affect routine developments aimed to benefit Aam Aadmi.

THESHUHAMA POUNDS
 The work on two dog pounds, expected to house some four hundred dogs, is on at full swing and is expected to be completed within a fortnight. The construction is coming up on 19 kanal land being provided by the SK Agriculture University of Science at Technology at its Shuhama campus in Alasteng. The SMC is understood to have signed an MOU with the SKUAST (K) and the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) for the construction of the pounds and subsequent sterilization of dogs.
 Sources said the twin pounds are being constructed on pilot basis. They said following a deadlock between the civic body and Ganderbal residents over construction of dog pounds at Khimber, the SMC decided to take up construction on the varsity land.
 “Rs 56 lakhs are being spent on the chain-link fencing  while the rest of the money will be spent on construction of separate concrete kennels with well ventilated iron doors,” said an official at SKUAST(K), requesting not to be named.

DOG ACCOMMODATION
 Officials in the Housing and Urban Development Department (H&UDD) said the pounds would be equipped with separate kennels for every dog while males and females of the specie would be kept in separate compartments to avoid any mating till they get sterilized.
 “Dogs are territorial animals and don’t allow their counterparts from others areas to venture into their localities. With this in mind, the stray packs collected from various areas will be given separate space where each dog will have its own concrete kennel to live,” explained a veterinarian.

CARE AND FEEDING
 Dogs at the pounds will be looked after by specialized people, the Dog Caretakers. Each such caretaker will look after 25 dogs and provide them with food and other requirements.

THE FUTURE
 Given the fat population of one lakh dogs in the City, officials said over 1800 pounds would have to constructed, each with a capacity to accommodate 50 dogs while the total expenditure may go into hundreds of crores of rupees. Interestingly this could be many times more than SMC’s annual budgetary allocations.

SMC SPEAKS
 When contacted the SMC Commissioner Sheikh Mushtaq admitted that the pounds at Shuhama were being constructed by the corporation.
 “As we are yet to get any separate funding (for dog pound construction and their feeding), we had no options but to manage the money out of our own resources,” the Commissioner told Greater Kashmir.
 To a question that if it was misuse of public money, Mushtaq downplayed the matter saying: “We will sort it out in future.”

THE GENESIS
 With an alarming dog population on prowl, the City has witnessed a surge in the canine attacks while at least three persons including a 10-year old boy died this year.
  The High Court intervention into the dog menace came up in the summer of this year in response to a PIL. Last month, the High Court had directed the SMC to construct the dog pounds at Khimber within a fortnight. But in less than a week the work had to stopped following massive protests by the villagers. Thereafter, the SMC commissioner said, work was started at Shuhama on “pilot basis till the  Khimber issue is resolved.”
 Pertinently in one of the hearings Chief Justice Ibraheem Kalifullah had posed a million dollar question to the courtroom which nobody could reply:  Will a dog stop biting after sterilization?

Lastupdate on : Thu, 8 Sep 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 8 Sep 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 9 Sep 2011 00:00:00 IST