Govt. should immediately address the menace of stray dogs and save lives: Sandhwan

Chandigarh, February 26

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and chief of the Kisan wing of the party said that the state government led by Captain Amarinder Singh was sleeping over the menace of stray dogs while people were allowed to suffer their terror in silence.

In a statement issued from the party headquarters here in Chandigarh on Tuesday, Sandhwan said that the Captain Government was non-serious about the menace of stray dogs unleashing a reign of terror on the people.

Expressing his bewilderment over the surging incidents of dog bites, Sandhwan accused the government of sleeping over the matter despite its tall claims of having contained the problems. Debunking its false claims, the Kisan wing chief said that if official figures were to be believed, the ground situation was disturbing as not a day passes when terror strike by dogs was not reported in the newspapers.

Referring to a newspaper report featuring a 60-year-old lady who was killed by some 20 stray dogs in Gurdaspur district, he said that many others were falling prey to the stray dogs, day in and day out. Quoting another news paper report, Sandhwan said that on an average 300 dog bite cases per day were reported while a total of about one lakh each were reported during the years 2016 and 2017 as per the data culled by the health and family welfare department.

He further said that even the apex court had expressed its grave concern over the way people were falling prey to the canine ‘killers’ and had directed the official concerned to take an urgent call on the issue. He added that issue had been a permanent issue of discussion in the Vidhan Sabha sessions for the past several years but it was a matter of disgrace that no action had been taken, he rued. He said in recently concluded session of  had been made to deal with the menace, which, he said, showed the non-serious stance of the Captain government over the sensitive issue.

Sandhwan demanded that the government should come out clean on the issue surrounding precious lives of the people and initiation of immediate steps to deal with the menace sooner than later. He also sought an explanation from the state local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu,    Animal husbandry minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, union ministers Vijay Sampla and Harsimrat Kaur for being insensitive to the menace.