BANGALORE: A 75-page report suggesting modifications to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's (BBMP) seven-year-old Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme was submitted by Dr. Sudarshan, Professor and Head of Community Medicine, Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), to BBMP Commissioner K. Jairaj on Wednesday.

Tight-lipped

Although BBMP officials were tight-lipped about the contents of the performance audit, sources said the report had recommended overhaul of the programme.

The Commissioner had ordered a performance audit of the programme by a team of experts led by Dr. Sudarshan in January after eight-year-old Sridevi was mauled to death by stray dogs in Chandra Layout. It attained more prominence after five-year-old Manjunath was killed by dogs at C.V. Raman Nagar on March 1.

The report was to be submitted by March 31. But the team sought more time stating that the process of examining and meeting the set parameters took time.

The audit was aimed at finding out whether the ABC programme had succeeded in reducing the number of canines and controlling rabies.

"We will have a meeting of the Monitoring Committee on May 15 and the report will be made public on that day. I am yet to study the report," Mr. Jairaj said to The Hindu .

The Monitoring Committee has 13 people, including the Commissioner, Zonal Joint Commissioners, Chief Health Officer and Dr. Sudarshan.

ABC was launched as a four-step programme in 2000 to control and eventually rid the city of street dogs.

Under the programme, street dogs were captured, sterilised, vaccinated and let back into the same location that they were caught.

The BBMP started it in association with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) Karuna, Krupa, Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA) and Animal Rights Fund. It enlisted the support of the Animal Husbandry Department.

NGOs given notice

The NGOs, excluding CUPA, were served a notice asking an explanation as to why they had stopped the ABC programme from March.

The notice asked them to explain why action should not be taken against them for violating contractual obligations.

MoU

"According to the memorandum of understanding between the BBMP and NGOs, the latter cannot stop conducting the programme at any cost," Prakash Reddy, Deputy Director, Animal Husbandry Department, said.

Karuna president B.C. Ramakrishna said the NGOs had stopped the programme because the BBMP had not released funds. "They have violated the agreement themselves by not giving us funds in advance," he said.

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