The two Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres set up by the Ernakulam district panchayat in Mulanthuruthy and Vadavucode block panchayats have run into rough weather hardly a year after they turned operational, thanks to inadequate financial assistance from the State government.
The centres, which were inaugurated last July, were being run smoothly till March this year after which the salary of the staff has become due. Each centre requires around ₹1.60 lakh a month to meet salary expenses. The centres are now waiting for the next allocation of ₹3 lakh from the government.
The centres employ a vet, a theatre assistant, a cleaning staff, and four dog handlers each. Only two dog handlers are available at the centre at Vadavucode. The low payment to dog handlers also poses a challenge.
At present, a dog handler is paid a mere ₹200 per dog, which he has to catch, bring to the centre, and then release at the same spot from where the animal was caught irrespective of the distance covered. “We have proposed an upward revision of ₹200 each for the dog caught from the panchayats where the centres are located and a higher rate, as may be decided by the government, for dogs caught from other panchayats,” said sources associated with ABC centres.
The centre in Mulanthuruthy block panchayat also caters for Pampakuda block panchayat and 11 panchayats collectively falling under their limits, while the one in the Vadavucode block caters for Muvattupuzha block and the 14 panchayats under them. Besides, they are also open to sterilisation of dogs from Koothattukulam, Piravom and Muvattupuzha.
The centres have an installed capacity to sterilise eight to 10 stray dogs a day, but the number now remains restricted to two to three a day owing to financial constraints and shortage of dog handlers. As it is, the centres have now dedicated their services two days a week to sterilising pet dogs, which is a paid service, ₹1,500 for female dogs and ₹750 for male dogs, based on advance booking. The funds so generated go to the district panchayat.
The centres, funded jointly by the district panchayat, the four block panchayats, and the grama panchayats were set up at a collective investment of ₹30 lakh each.
The district panchayat also had plans to set up a bigger facility on a one-acre plot in Angamaly but had to drop it in the face of popular protest, said district panchayat president Manoj Moothedan. Other than the ABC centre, a dog shelter and a sale-cum-exhibition centre for pets were also planned as part of the project. The proposed facility was to cater for Angamaly, Koovappady, Parakkadavu and Vazhakkulam block panchayats and the adjoining municipalities.
“We would need two more ABC centres catering for coastal areas like North Paravur, Alangad, and Vypeen and another for local bodies along the eastern suburbs like Kothamangalam, Muvattupuzha, Perumbavoor, and Angamaly,” Mr. Moothedan said.
