E-Paper
Some respect in death
Decaying body of a stray animal is a common sight on the roads of Delhi, and no one touches it with a barge pole.
On my way to work this morning, I saw the mangled body of a dead brown cat at the side of a road near Mayur Vihar. Not only had it been run over by some reckless driver, it seemed as if other commuters had subsequently gone over it several times. And no one had bothered to remove the carcass for hours.
But the decaying body of a stray animal is a common sight on the roads of Delhi, and no one touches it with a barge pole. The local sweepers say it’s the job of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation, the NDMC leads you to the Municipal Council of Delhi, and the MCD, in true sarkari style, passes you around from one zone to another. And days go by. But I was determined to do something this time. I logged on to MCD’s official website (www.mcdonline.gov.in), found an MCD Directory and located two possible departments to call — Community Service (because an abandoned carcass is a public-health hazard) and Veterinary Services — and proceeded to hound them.
I managed to get through to an official in the Veterinary Services department, who in turn told me to call someone in my concerned zone. You see, our Dilli is divided into 12 parts, and each has its own MCD office. These, in turn, have hired contractors for such business. Right. Probing further, I learnt that Mayur Vihar comes under the Shahadra South Zone and proceeded to call different departments therein. Finally I lodged a request at the APRO’s office (the number is given online).
And boy, was that a task! The man at the other end of the line thought at first that I was calling about a human dead body! “Toh aap police ko phone kariye madam”, and then sounded shocked that it was the carcass of a cat. “Billi!!!” I’m still not sure whether he was shocked because it is unimaginable that someone killed a cat or because it is unimaginable that someone cares about a dead one.
For the next two hours, a contractor was in Mayur Vihar, trying to locate the cat. It took an endless series of calls to explain to him where it exactly was. At the end of it all, he concluded that the place I was talking about was not part of Shahadara South Zone; it was actually in another zone altogether! However, he promised to inform his colleagues in the other zone and assured me that the cat would be given the last vestiges of respect due to any living being. The next time you walk away from a sight like this, thinking your actions won’t make any difference, stop. The authorities may have a long way to go in becoming efficient, but you can’t afford to be lax, either. Report it, take your complaint number and hound them. The numbers are all given online; please make good use of them.
