Dogs disturb us, complain judges, guv
December 19, 2006

ADITI SHARMA
    The anti-stray dog lobby has found its strongest votaries yet, with four
judges of the Bombay High Court and Raj Bhavan officials writing to the
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on behalf of Governor S M Krishna
asking it to put an end to the "dog menace." This testimony will be used by
the BMC to strengthen its case for killing strays in the HC, where two
petitions, one pro-killing and the other prolife, are being heard.
    The judges -- R M Lodha, S Radhakrishnan, V C Daga and P V Kakade -- who
reside at Rocky Hill, the official quarters for HC judges at Napean Sea
Road, have said in their letter that strays in the area bark through the
night, making it impossible for them to get sound sleep, and have urged the
BMC to help get rid of the 'menace.'
    However, a court official who did not wish to be named said BMC workers
"come once in a while, pick up the dogs (for sterilisation) and then leave
them back in the area after a few days. So the problem persists."
    The letter dashed off recently to the BMC by the secretary to Governor S
M Krishna complains just as strongly about the "trouble" caused by strays at
Raj Bhavan. The letter makes the Governor's unhappiness over BMC's handling
of the matter clear, sources said, because just as at the judges' quarters,
the corporation takes the dogs away from Raj Bhavan for sterilisation, only
to send them back inside the premises.
    An official at Raj Bhavan said the dogs, whose entry into the premises
is made easy by porous boundaries, not only give the Governor and his staff
sleepless nights but also chase and trouble the peacocks kept there. The
official added that similar letters were sent during Dr P C Alexander and
Mohammed Fazal's tenures, but no solution has been found yet.
    The BMC, for its part, says it is helpless because a 1998 high court
order bans killing of strays and also stipulates that dogs picked up from a
certain area for sterilisation should be left back in the same area.
    However, it has now mentioned the letters from the judges and Raj Bhavan
in an affidavit filed in high court.
    "We have been pleading before the HC that sterilisation cannot be a
solution, and that we should be allowed to kill strays under Section 191 BA
of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888 (which states dogs can be
killed if they are a nuisance and are not claimed by anybody for three days
or if they are suffering from rabies or any other infection). We have
recently once again made our stand clear and explained in our affidavit that
we are getting complaints from VIPs and many other high-profile citizens," a
senior BMC official who did not wish to be named said.
    Both petitions will next come up for hearing on January 19. The petition
for saving strays, filed by an NGO, Viniyog Parivar Trust, and others says
that if sterilisation is undertaken in a concentrated manner throughout the
city, the dog population will significantly reduce over a period of time. On
the other hand, the Law Graduates Association says in its plea that strays
must be killed to reduce the trauma suffered by people chased or bitten by
them.

- With inputs from Parikshit Joshi

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