Chandigarh Municipal Corporation meeting: House rejects relief policy for dog bite victims

Sep 30,2017

Chandigarh Municipal Corporation meeting: House rejects relief policy for dog bite victims
“In fact, the MC doesn’t have that much funds. Moreover, any person would come forward the next day claiming to have been bitten by a dog. So, it would be difficult to check the genuineness as well,” said Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla.

By: Express News Service | Chandigarh |
September 30, 2017 5:42:10 am

THE GENERAL House of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation on Friday rejected the agenda of introducing a compensation policy for dog-bite victims on the plea that the civic body was “already getting the victims treated”.
Mayor Asha Jaswal said the civic body was giving free treatment to the victims at its dispensaries and it was not feasible to give any compensation. The MC has incurred Rs 4.4 crore from 2014 to 2017 on this programme, details of which would be submitted to the government as well.
“In fact, the MC doesn’t have that much funds. Moreover, any person would come forward the next day claiming to have been bitten by a dog. So, it would be difficult to check the genuineness as well,” said Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla.
According to the agenda, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had expanded the scope of a writ petition in 2017 and issued notices to the UT Administration, MC, to show cause as to what policy had been framed for the purpose of compensating those who were injured or succumbed to dog bite and even due to the negligence of doctors attending to such patients.
In 2014, the HC took cognisance of stray dog menace. Various institutions were given time by the court and in course of the hearings, MC complied with the directions.

Blue Whale menace

The mayor said the suicide of 16-year-old Karan Thakur, who fell prey to the Blue Whale menace, was really unfortunate. She told all the councillors to ask senior citizens in the park to make sure that they educate and convince children not to play games that can claim their lives. Before proceedings began, everyone stood up to observe silence in memory of Air Marshal Arjan Singh, senior journalist KJ Singh and Karan Thakur.

Tax on five villages

Unless there are no basic amenities in the five villages of Hallomajra, Kajheri, Palsora, Maloya and Dadumajra, property tax would not be levied. “Unless, we don’t have special funds to provide facilities here, we decided not to bring them under the purview of commercial tax as of now,” said the mayor.

Purushartha transferred

MC Commissioner Baldeo Purushartha, a 2002 batch Punjab cadre IAS officer, was posted as personal secretary to Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri, on Friday. Meanwhile, the time meant to talk about development work was spent by councillors on congratulating Purushartha.
Former mayor and BJP councillor Arun Sood played a prank by giving Purushartha a letter stating that it was his cancellation but when the mayor opened it, congratulation was written on it.