The Hindu : Stray dogs on prowl in Vivekanandapuram

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 05, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Stray dogs on prowl in Vivekanandapuram

By Suresh Krishnamoorthy

HYDERABAD, FEB. 4. <145,H>Mothers living in Vivekanandapuram, of Kukatpally Municipality, are an agitated lot. They are on the edge and panicky everyday till their wards return home from school. The reason? Stray dogs have bitten at least six children, all studying in D.A.V. High School, located at Vivekanandapuram in Kukatpally in the past eight months and little has been done to stop the dogs on prowl.

An agitated housewife, Anuradha says, `My son, Dheeraj, was bitten by a black dog that has become notorious now, as he was coming back from school. It happened last Thursday and now I am forced to go and pick him up in my car for fear of the stray dogs though the school is just 50 yards away from our house.'

Since Thursday, Mrs. Anuradha has been trying to get in touch with someone `responsible enough' to take catch the pack of three dogs that hang around in the street corner of Rd. No. 33 in Vivekanandanagar. Yet another housewife, Rajeshwari, recounts her tale with a shudder. `I have never seen my little son, Anurag, cry as much as he did in June last year when he was bitten on both his legs by the same black dog. We have been running from pillar to post, but to no avail. We are honest tax-payers. Please help us,' she pleads.

The two mothers spent restless moments on Tuesday making at least 25 to 30 telephone calls and knocking at the doors of the authorities - from the MCH Commissioner to the Kukatpally Municipality. "We could not get through to the Commissioner, Chitra Ramachandran, but her staff gave us the telephone numbers of the Sanitary Inspector at the Kukatpally Municipality, while saying that the MCH could not help us in solving the problem."

When the women contacted the Kukatpally Municipality, they were reportedly told by an employee in the Sanitary Wing that the municipality did not have much infrastructure to tackle the dog menace. `Anyway, we are all too busy with election-related works,' Mrs. Anuradha and Mrs. Rajeshwari were reportedly told.

The Physical Education Teacher at the D.A.V. High School, Ajay Kumar, said a few months ago, Mounika, his student in Class 10, too was bitten by dogs. The Principal, Vasantha, said that she had been asking the office-bearers of the local Resident's Welfare Association to help, but the efforts had been in vain. `We are not asking for the moon. All we want is for the three mad dogs to be caught,' the mothers in the area appeal.

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