MCD Orders Stray Dogs To Be Rounded Up Ahead Of Supreme Court Hearing

Ahead of a Supreme Court verdict, the MCD ordered NGOs to capture aggressive stray dogs from vulnerable areas like hospitals and schools, housing them in ABC centers.

The drive, monitored via the MCD 311 app and CCTV, aims to comply with court orders. In the first three days, 121 dogs were captured.

Source : PTI

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has instructed NGOs and zonal officials to begin rounding up stray dogs from “vulnerable areas” and house them in designated shelters ahead of Supreme Court's verdict on pleas seeking a stay on its earlier order. 

In an official directive issued on August 19 by the deputy director of veterinary services under the rabies control programme, the MCD asked all NGOs working under memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the civic body to immediately pick up ferocious, aggressive, and habitual biting dogs. The order specifies that the initial focus should be on sensitive locations, including government offices, hospitals, schools, and public parks.

“In compliance of orders dated August 11 passed by the Supreme Court of India in the Suo Moto writ petition, all NGOs engaged through MoU by MCD doing the work of sterilisation and immunisation of stray dogs are hereby directed to pick up all ferocious, aggressive and habitual biting stray dogs initially from vulnerable points like government offices, hospitals etc and the same shall be kept in their ABC centres,” the order stated.

The MCD currently operates 20 Animal Birth Control (ABC) centres in partnership with 12 NGOs. These units are responsible for sterilisation and vaccination drives, but NGO workers have raised concerns over the practicality of carrying out such large-scale pickups.

Officials said the drive will be executed on a ward-wise basis, with the 20 ABC centres mapped across 250 municipal wards. Veterinary officers have also been asked to ensure that captured dogs are handed over to the nearest ABC centre.

To monitor the process, the veterinary department has directed workers to log daily records of dogs picked up using the MCD 311 mobile application. Additionally, NGOs must maintain physical registers and preserve CCTV footage of each captured animal.

Providing updates on the drive, an MCD official said that 83 stray dogs were rounded up in the first two days after the order was issued, followed by 38 more on Thursday.