Regular classes in the College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET) were suspended for a day on Monday fearing the presence of rabies-infected stray dogs on its campus, college authorities said. Principal V Suresh Babu said the decision to suspend the class was taken soon after receiving information from the security staff of the college previous night about the presence of such dangerous dogs in the campus.
"Around 5,000 students are studying in the college. Considering the safety of the students and 700-odd staff, we took the decision to suspend the regular class today. However, some departments tried to organise classes online," the principal told PTI.
However, examinations fixed earlier were not suspended and proper security cover was provided to the students who reached the campus to write exams, he said.
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The principal said officials from Thiruvananthapuram city corporation and state animal husbandry department reached the college after being informed about the situation and a drive to catch the stray dogs from the 80-acre campus has been launched. He said regular classes will be resumed on Tuesday.
The city's civic body deployed a team to the campus, who caught six dogs, said a Times of India report. Three dogs of the six were vaccinated. The civic body officials said, no dogs shown symptoms of rabbies. The officials further informed that over 800 dogs have been sterlised by the corporation in 2022.
The city civic body had initiated a vaccination drive for stray dogs in September. As part of the drive which took place till November 1, 2022, four teams were formed to cover 100 wards. The officials said that vaccination drives are being done in the areas in and around CET and near Sreekaryam and Chavadimukku.
(With PTI inputs)