Send Mumbai's stray dogs to Nagaland: Sena corporator

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Raul's statement seems to have been inspired by a Punjab MLA, who had suggested sending the dogs to the northeast for "whatever they do to them" in 2012.

Raul has said that the dogs can be sent to Nagaland since she claims there is shortage of animals in that state.

Raul said, "The dogs should be sent to the Nagaland. Instead of just giving the contracts for conducting the census, they might as well do something productive. The problem is that there is no proper place where the dogs can be taken to and these street dogs have become a nuisance to the society. Nagaland is short of animals and have been importing animals from countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh so this can be helpful."

Shiv Sena corporator and ex-Mumbai mayor Shubha Raul. File Pic

Her statements came after a discussion in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's standing committee about the dogs' census.

Mumbai's civic body also plans to start a department to take care of the animals in the city on lines of the Municipal Commissioner's promise in his budget speech.

The BMC's standing committee on Wednesday passed a proposal that the civic body would conduct a dog census. Incidentally, the dog census would take place after a gap of almost 6 years since the last one was done in 2007.

Shubha Raul, though, felt that wasting Rs 10 lakh on dog census could be better used to house the stray canines at Palghar where the High Court had reserved a plot for them.

Though the state government has allotted a place for the canines, there are no permanent places and the plot at Palghar hasn't been made a permanent place for the street dogs since the locals oppose.

Raul also alleged that the increase in the number of dogs in Mumbai was due to many canines entering the city from the various areas of Mira road and Bhayander.

Additional Municipal Commissioner (eastern suburbs), Aseem Gupta, said, "There is a need to conduct dog census and there is only one organization which deals in it and hence they have been awarded the contract. And due to the local residents' opposition there are no homes for dogs in Palghar."