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KOCHI: After exhausting all its efforts to tame stray dogs, the Kochi Corporation is going to take up a project which will help in finding a solution to the menace in West Kochi. This will give a big respite to the residents of West Kochi who have been facing problems for a long time now with the local body struggling to find a way to deal with issue.

As per the plan, the Kochi Corporation will develop a centre where the stray dogs will be taken and subject to key hole sterilisation surgery, Health Standing Committee Chairman K J Sohan said. A meeting was held here the other day to discuss the matter. Another meeting will be held soon to do more planning on the project, sources said. The local body will spend about `5 lakh to convert an existing building at Chullickal into a centre where the dogs will be sterilised.

The dogs will be kept at the centre where they will be given post operative care. The residents in the area with pet dogs can also take their dogs to the centre for sterilization. They will be kept in the centre for about ten days before dropping them from the location from where they were picked. However, the main concern of the corporation is to complete the modification of the building utilising `5 lakh by the end of March failing which the grant will get cancelled.

The project, which had been cleared by the district planning board and the state planning board had been gathering dust for sometime now. The local body is planning to appoint two veterinary doctors on a contract basis to carry out the operation. The contract period will be for a period of six months, he said. The corporation will have to tie up with an NGO for implementing the project. This will be done by inviting expression of interest, Sohan said. The corporation had been mulling over finding a solution to deal with the increase in the number of stray dogs in the area.

The situation has turned bad as its earlier attempt to take up a similar project failed to bear fruits a couple of years back. Then the dogs were taken to the government veterinary hospital at Mattancherry where doctors were required to carry out the sterilisation surgery. There are cases of domesticated dogs being discarded by the residents once they become old, a resident said.

Source : Expressbuzz