DogExpress
The Municipal Corporation is set to frame a compensation policy for dog bite victims in Chandigarh. The general house of the municipal corporation would take up the discussion on the policy in its meeting on today.
According to the agenda it was specified that the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2014 had expanded the scope of a writ petition and issued notices to the Chandigarh Administration and Chandigarh Municipal Corporation to show cause as to what policy has been framed for the purpose of compensating the persons who suffer injuries or death because of dog bite and even on account of negligence of doctors attending such patients.
In 2014, the court had taken cognizance of stray dog menace. The case was heard and various institutions were given time and during the course of hearings, the civic body had complied with the directions.
The HC had directed the administration and MC to clear their stand with regard to the compensation policy for dog bite victims.
The matter was placed before the house last year, but it was totally rejected considering the fact that there was no statutory provision in the Municipal Act regarding compensation.
But now, the matter has again come up for discussion in the house.
“In fact, the MC is already providing free treatment to the dog bite victims in respect of vaccination or serum in its anti-rabies civil dispensaries in sectors 19 and 38. But because there were court directions, the matter has come up before the house for discussion,” said a senior municipal officer.
According to the details with the MC, in 2015, the civic body had hired an agency to augment an ongoing sterilization programme. Since April 2015 till June 2017, the agency sterilized and vaccinated 9,113 stray dogs in the city, according to the details with the MC.
A dog control cell was also constituted for attending to stray dog menace and related complaints that were received on number 155304. The MC incurred Rs 4.4 crore from 2014 to 2017 on this dog programme, the agenda stated.
Source : The Indian Express
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in Chandigarh, India. 
