Ranchi: On the third day of the ongoing Budget Session of the Jharkhand Assembly the menace due to the growing number of stray dogs and people dying due to dog bites in the prominent cities of the state was raised.
The matter was raised during the question hour by BJP’s Bokaro MLA Biranchi Narayan who asked to whether the terror of stray dogs in Bokaro Ranchi and other cities has increased in Jharkhand and whether on an average 300 people are falling victim to dog bite in the capital and whether the department planned to have dog squad in all the cities of the capital.
Replying to the issue Labour Minister Satyanand Bhokta said that as far as capital was concerned NGO Hope was performing the vaccination and ‘neuter’ on an average 10-15 dogs daily while in Giridih Dhanbad and Deoghar Municipal Corporation areas the concerned agency are performing similar task while the process to identify the agency for Jamshedpur, Hazaribagh, and Adityapur was on.
On this, the MLA pointed out that even anti-rabies vaccines are not available in every district of the state and pointed out that 20,000 deaths are happening annually due to dog bites. Joining in the matter CPIML MLA Binod Singh said that on average 50 people died in Jharkhand due to dog bite and there was no compensation policy in this regard.
On the other hand, Hatia MLA Naveen Jaiswal said he from his MLA Funds had provided a vehicle to the Ranchi Municipal Corporation to catch the stray dogs and demanded the department concerned to take necessary steps in this regard. JMM’s Tundi MLA Mathura Mahto said that the agency concerned catches dogs in Bokaro and leaves them in Dhanbad.
He said that people of his area are already troubled with elephants and now dogs are adding to the problems. Biranchi Narayan again said that if the government is not able to solve the problems than it should call people from Nagaland to do so which was objected by Congress MLA Shilpi Neha Tirkey who demanded that the MLA should seek an apology for his remarks as it was disrespectful for the people of Nagaland. Minister Satyanand Bhokta later said that note has been taken of the issues raised by the MLAs and all necessary measures will be taken.