State Information Commission directs NMC to review stray dog population

Times of India: Nagpur: Monday, 22 February 2016.

The State Information Commission (SIC) has ordered the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) to conduct a survey of stray dog population and provide numbers of the reproductive ones in the city. The commission also imposed a fine of Rs2,000 on NMC for its failure in providing the information. The money is to be paid to Ankita Shah, the RTI activist who raised the query.

In July last year, Shah had sought information about total number of dog population in the city, number of dogs captured for sterilization along with their areas, details of organizations which were given the contract to perform Animal Birth Control (ABC) operations, total number of dogs released after sterilization and total number of dogs suffering from rabies.

In its reply, the civic body stated it had no data as no survey was conducted.

Following this, Shah had filed an appeal before the final authority in September last year on the grounds of not getting complete information. After not receiving a decision on her first appeal within the stipulated period of 30 days, Shah sent a reminder-cum-notice to NMC's medical officer Pradeep Dasarwar, who is also the First Appellate Authority (FAA), in October 2015.

About 20 days later, she filed a second appeal to SIC Vasant Patil under section 19 (3) of the Right To Information Act, 2005, stating that she was provided misleading information.

Following this, the SIC directed the municipal commissioner to review the city's stray population and enumerate the number of dogs in the reproductive stage. In its order, the SIC further stated that stray population is a sensitive matter and the sought information is in the interest of public health and hence should be taken seriously.

Citing the Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001, the SIC pointed out that it is mandatory to conduct ABC operations on 60% of dog population. "When NMC does not have the total number of dog population, how will it target 60%," it Shah.

In August 2015, TOI had reported about the RTI query in which NMC had failed to provide the necessary information. Though NMC has spent Rs2.17 crore on Animal Birth Control (ABC) operations in seven years, sterilizing 58,843 dogs in the process, it had no data available regarding total population of stray dogs and those suffering from rabies, since no survey was conducted.

It also revealed that ABC was not conducted between 2002-2006 and 2014-2015. According to section 5(e) of Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001, a survey of the number of street dogs has to be conducted by the local body through an independent agency.