BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has spent over Rs 20 crore in the last three years on sterilization of stray dogs. Despite this massive expenditure, the number of stray dogs in Bengaluru remains uncontrolled, giving rise to suspicion of corruption or misuse of funds.
Questions are now being raised by animal rights activists on whether BBMP officials are involved in alleged corruption, spending crores only sterilisation of street dogs. The huge expenditure on sterilization, combined with the ineffective implementation of the ABC programme and the BBMP’s failure to control the stray dog population, raises suspicions about misuse of funds, many said.
The statistics given by the government have further raised doubts. Deputy CM D K Shivakumar himself answered the question of MLA Rizwan Arshad in the Assembly.
As per the BBMP’s records, in 2021-22, the civic body spent Rs 6.89 crore to sterilize 57,481 dogs. In 2022-23, it spent Rs 6.89 crore to sterilize 47,892 dogs and in 2023-24, Rs 7.40 crore was spent to sterilize 49,511 dogs.