Srinagar, July 18: Stray packs yet again went on a biting spree Wednesday with around three dozen people including children falling prey to the deadly bites while government as usual failed in providing free treatment to the victims.
 Witnesses said the stray packs went barking and biting, mostly in the congested Shaher-e-Khaas areas like Nawa Kadal, Eidgah, Alamgiri Bazar, and Hawal while those who tried to come to rescue of the victims met with the same fate.
 While officials in Kashmir’s sole Anti Rabies Clinic (ARC) at SMHS Hospital confirmed that at least 31 cases poured in till afternoon, the actual figures could be bigger as many now prefer going for private treatment because the government hospitals don’t provide it free of cost.

SCENE AT ARC
 By 11:30 AM, around two dozen victims including children where rushed to SMHS Hospital while the ARC staffers tried their best to provide instant treatment.
 Even as every patient had a gory tale to narrate, the plight of a three year-old-boy, Ashiq, a resident of Sopore was worst.
 The dogs had eaten away a portion of his face. Seeing him many went emotional and started shouting slogans against the ruling coalition accusing it of failing to “uphold rights of human to life.”
 But Ashiq wasn’t the end of the list. Thereafter many children were rushed in. One of them, a schoolboy had just returned from a camp when he fell prey to the dog bites on way to Soura home.

RESCUERS WENT VICTIMS
 A young man form Alamgiri Bazar while showing wounds on his arm and legs said he was bitten by dogs while trying to save a child. The man requesting not to be named said two more people were bitten when they came to his rescue. “It appeared that everyone who tried to come to rescue, met the same fate,” he said.

GOVT FAILURE IN TREATMENT
 Despite the directions of the state High Court that free treatment be given to dog bite cases, the government doesn’t provide free the costly Immunogulobin, something vital for treatment of the dog bite cases.
 Patients have to procure the costly vaccine from open markets. There’s also a concern over bite scars. The government doesn’t provide any free treatment to such cases though it costs a huge amount in open markets.

BOTTOMLINE
 Official figures reveal that till now mere 300 odd of the 91,100 dogs, which the government claims are on prowl in Srinagar, have been sterilized at the Shuhama dog pound.
 Though the government earlier this month assured that a parallel facility would be set up at the Tengpora pound, there has been no breakthrough.
 While the government has been eyeing on sterilization, a million dollar question posed last year by the then Chief Justice FM Ibraheem Kalif Ullah remains unanswered in the courtroom: Will a dog stop biting after sterilization?

Give suggestions, we’ll take note: Dr Qasba
COMMENTING over the issue of sudden surge in dog bite cases, the Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Commissioner, Dr GN Qasba said government was trying every legal option to get rid of the dog menace adding that people should give suggestions on how to tackle it.
 “We have already passed advertisements in compliance to honorable High Court orders seeking views and opinion of people as to what their perspective is of solving the problem,” he said.
 “We would like more and more public suggestions so that future strategies are accordingly decided by the Expert Committee which will peruse the feedback,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 18 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 18 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 19 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST