Coimbatore corporation seeks 2 crore for new ABC centre

Coimbatore: The city corporation has recently sent a proposal to the state govt to set up an additional animal birth control (ABC) centre in the city and sought Rs2 crore for the same.
Corporation commissioner M Sivaguru Prabhakaran said they had identified a parcel of land near Vellakinaru in the north zone for the proposed ABC centre. "The facility will have a capacity to accommodate nearly 100 dogs.The goal is to sterilize at least 50 dogs per day. We are looking for a holistic approach to address the stray dog menace across all corporation zones."
Presently, the corporation runs four animal birth control centres at Ukkadam, Seernaikenpalayam, Ondipudur and Vellalore in collaboration with three NGOs.
However, the pace at which the sterilization drive is being carried out had drawn flak from a number of councillors at the council meeting, including Coimbatore MP Ganapathy Rajkumar, who emphasized on the need for an active monitoring committee.
A DMK councillor, who didn't want to be identified, said it was questionable whether the money allocated for the sterilization surgery was being utilized property. "The catching vehicles seem to capture only one or two stray dogs. But they provide wrong numbers. Ward councillors should be notified about the number of stray dogs being captured along with the location details."
It is to be noted that the civic body had procured three new dog catching vehicles at a cost of Rs31.62 lakh earlier this week.