Ben Madilynn
Bhopal: Animal lovers, all women, booked by Ayodhya Nagar police for allegedly resisting BMC dog squad action to catch street dogs from New Minal Residency alleged that some colony residents deliberately gave their names to the BMC team and police to settle personal scores. They are being humiliated publicly, they claimed.
Shubhrangi Yadav, 27, who is an HR professional and lives in Minal Residency, said, “My name is not Neha Yadav, as mentioned in the FIR.The colony residents, who are against street dogs, gave my wrong name but just to be sure, gave my actual address. We come from educated and reputed families, we are working professionals. We know how to behave in public. If we have emotion for animals we definitely have emotion for people and human beings. But that does not mean that we will be discarded from society like this. I’m being humiliated by people living in my line like anything. On Sunday around 25 people gathered in front of my house and shouted ‘shame-shame’ only because I feed six dogs, which are registered with BMC, vaccinated, neutral as per the Supreme Court guidelines and BMC norms. Still we are being humiliated like this. People gathered in front of my gate, hurled abuses and even made false allegations on my character. They are humiliating me and my family. We only requested BMC squad with folding hands to tell where they were taking our kids (street dogs).”
Divyangana Dwivedi, 24, who is a freelance artist, said, “The incident in which the 7-month-old baby boy died was shocking and heart wrenching. I accept that. I am in touch with some NGOs working for street kids (stray dogs) so I have information on what medicines to be given to them and how to help them. After the incident, there was an uproar among residents of Minal Residency. BMC employees were randomly catching dogs without even considering that they do not have any biting history, vaccinated and are sterilized. They were catching the dogs cruelly and in an unethical way. Since then, I have not been able to feed any stray dog because people shout shame-shame as they spot me feeding the dogs. I refuse that I misbehaved with any BMC official. Police registered an FIR against me without any investigations just because somebody recorded my video.” About increase in dog bite cases Divyangini said that BMC is responsible for it. When we call BMC officials for vaccination of street dogs or sterilisation, they tell us to catch the dog and then they would come. Another factor is that BMC relocates the stray dogs after catching them into a new area. If dogs are relocated to a new area, their behaviour turns aggressive because the other dogs do not recognise them, they do not get food. Many people act cruelly against the dogs.
Nikita Malviya, 33, a resident of Khajuri Kalan area, is a data science student and also works as a teacher. She has also been booked in the FIR. She told TOI that the death of the 7-month-old boy was very shocking. She was not involved in the incident and was just passing through the area at that time to go to take a home tuition. But still she was named in the FIR.
“BMC had not given any prior notice before catching stray dogs from the area due to which animal lovers panicked. I was just passing through and stopped to ask what was happening. I just stopped for 15 seconds and went away but still was named in the FIR. Animal lovers were ready to help the BMC team and had been helping them since the past. They were just asking about orders. I am not a resident of Minal and don’t know how I was named in the FIR,” she said. She said, “I have been a social worker since 2017. I don’t know what misunderstanding took place that I was named in the FIR.”
