Hubballi: Thursday’s general body meeting of the Hubballi Dharwad Municipal Corporation witnessed pandemonium over the failure of officials to curb the increasing menace of stray dogs.Members from all parties took officials to task for being negligent in dealing with stray dogs and held the health department and solid waste management department responsible for the menace.Raising the issue by moving a call attention motion, leader of the opposition Ganesh Tagargunti said officials failed to curb the menace despite spending lakhs over stray dog sterilization process. Health officer Dr Prabhu Biradar informed the house that the animal birth control programme was stopped eight months ago in the wake of HDMC not clearing the bill of an agency which was involved in the work.The accounting officer said HDMC had paid Rs 40 lakh out of the Rs48 lakh bill raised by the agency.Soon after, members alleged that population of dogs has increased due to the improper implementation of door-to-door collection of waste by the solid waste management (SWM) department. “Dogs eating garbage on the street attack children who go near them,” said a member.Health and SWM department officials tried to justify their work but some members accused them of misleading the house by giving wrong information about implementation of door to door garbage collection project. Mayor Sudheer Saraf asked the members to suggest a solution to end this issue.Senior member Pandurang Patil said door-to-door garbage collection should be implemented strictly to discourage people from throwing waste on the roads to which will in turn help end the stray dog menace.In response, SWM officials said around 40% houses were not covered under door-to-door garbage collection programme. Despite repeated requests, people are dumping waste in open areas, they said.The department conducted a survey and identified 215 such black sports in the twin cities and they would be cleaned shortly, they said. Soon, separate auto tippers would be deployed to collect leftover food from meat and fish shops, hotels and restaurants, they added. Mayor Saraf asked officials to keep drains, roadside and street corners free from waste.Row over actor’s payThe meeting also witnessed heated arguments over payment of Rs 1.8 lakh to actress Ragini Dwivedi for being the brand ambassador of HDMC’s Swachh Bharat campaign. Some members said the actress need not be paid as she erself had said that she had voluntarily accepted the position and not for money. Later, the Mayor said he would take a call on the issue after holding talks with HDMC commissioner who was out of station then.Power cutLights, air-conditioner and fans stopped working at the place where the mayor, deputy mayor and officials sit in the meeting hall. Later, the entire house turned dark due to a power failure. An official said there was a problem in a power line and it was being repaired.While Mayor Sudhir Saraf adjourned the house for a while Congress members switched on the torch in their cellphone and held it up. They compared the power failure to the plight of administration in the corporation. Power supply was restored after 15 minutes.

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