Hyderabad: GHMC Mayor Gadwal Vijaya Laxmi on Tuesday expressed grief over the death of a five-year-old boy who was mauled to death by stray dogs in Amberpet. She held a meeting with the veterinary officials at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) headquarters regarding the incident.
Mayor Vijaya Lakshmi ordered the officials to immediately take up an inquiry into the incident. On behalf of the government, GHMC is providing assistance to the boy’s parents. GHMC Mayor Vijaya Laxmi said that animal birth control and anti-rabies injections have been allotted to each circle so that such incidents do not recur.
According to a press note from her office, the GHMC Mayor said that complaints about stray dogs are being monitored from time to time and appropriate action is being taken. Vijaya Laxmi added that two officers and one vehicle for each circle has been arranged for this purpose.
Necessary steps will be taken to take care of the dogs during the coming summer season, the Mayor stated according to the release. It added that there are 5.75 lakh stray dogs across Hyderabad and 75% of them have already been sterilized. Along with GHMC, five voluntary organizations are continuously conducting the sterilization process, the Mayor added.
GHMC intensifies sterilisation after incident
Veterinary officials from the GHMC informed Mayor Vijaya Laxmi that they have already identified 33 dogs in the wake of Amberpet incident and sent them to GHMC Animal Care Center Mahadevpur for observation and sterilization and anti-rabies vaccination. Out that, the GHMC sterilised 25 animals.
“Sterilization and anti-rabies vaccination are being done through five animal care centers of GHMC so that there is no danger to the public,” added the GHMC release. Veterinary officials in the meeting explained to the Mayor that 50,091 stray dogs were sterilized by GHMC in 2020-21, 73,601 in 2021-22 and 40,155 in 2022-23.
GHMC chief veterinary officer Dr. Abdul Vakil, central zone deputy director Chakrapani Reddy, and other officials participated in the meeting organized by Mayor Vijaya Laxmi.
In the unfortunate incident that transpired on Tuesday, the deceased minor was identified as Pradeep, who had accompanied his father to his workplace where the incident took place. The boy’s father, Gangadhar, works as a security guard. He took his son with him to work on Sunday and while he was strolling outside, a pack of stray dogs attacked him, sources said, adding that the CCTV footage of the incident has surfaced as well.
