HC raps Delhi govt for delay in forming panel to identify dog sterilisation centres

The Delhi High Court today rapped the AAP government for taking a month to set up a panel to inspect 77 veterinary hospitals and dispensaries run by it in the national capital.

"It takes you one month to form a committee? We had passed the order for inspection on April 25 and today it is May 24 and you are forming the committee now," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar observed.

The committee is expected to inspect these hospitals and dispensaries, ascertain their condition and identify if space was available in any of them to run centres to sterilise dogs.

The bench also said if the committee found any site feasible to set up a sterilisation centre, then it should be built immediately without waiting for directions from the court.

With this direction, the court listed the matter for hearing on August 14.

The bench on April 25 had said a joint team comprising officials of the municipal corporations and the Delhi government's Department of Animal Husbandry as well as animal rights activist Gauri Maulekhi will carry out the inspection.

The court had issued the direction after a director of veterinary services from one of the three municipal corporations had said more sterilisation centres are required to effectively reduce the numbers of stray dogs in the national capital.

The bench was hearing a PIL by a resident of Tekhand Village in south Delhi opposing the setting up of a veterinary hospital there on the grounds that a bigger and better facility existed in the Tughlakabad village.