Noida: Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) has now stepped in to address the growing disputes over stray dog feeding in residential societies. It has assured the highrises that it will assist with sterilisation and anti-rabies vaccinations, but residents said that it will only address the problem partially. They said they now need a clear solution on cost of building and maintaining the feeding points.The Authority has begun holding weekly meetings with societies to facilitate consensus on designated dog-feeding points and to resolve conflicts between residents and dog feeders. These are being attended by the police, the animal husbandry department, District Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, apartment owners’ associations (AOAs), estate managers and dog feeders.The initiative follows repeated complaints from sectors and group housing societies where disagreements over stray dogs and feeding have, in some cases, escalated into legal disputes and physical confrontations.The Authority CEO NG Ravi Kumar said the officials have been directed to create awareness about the animal birth control rules and responsible management of community dogs. The objective of the meetings every Thursday is not to encourage indiscriminate feeding but to ensure that feeding takes place at designated locations without creating inconvenience for other residents.“The Authority will assist us with sterilisation and rabies vaccination, but the feeding shelters will have to be created from our own funds,” a member of the Greenarch AOA, Naval Singh, said. “Funding becomes sensitive in societies where residents are sharply divided over feeding stray dogs. Many of them do not support spending maintenance funds on facilities that they believe do not benefit everyone.”He added that the dog lovers in his society had raised money and built feeding spots, but it has become difficult for them to maintain those in the absence of a regular fund.At Mahagun Mywoods, a dispute six months ago already resulted in the removal of existing feeding points. An AOA member of the society, Anil Verma, said there was a designated feeding point earlier, but there was an argument between residents over dog feeding a few months ago. “All the feeding points have been removed from the society. We are now trying to find a solution,” he said.The Authority has issued a schedule for meetings with 24 societies till Dec 31. “Three meetings have already been held with Savier Green Arch, Parsvnath Panorama and Mahagun Mywoods. The meetings will continue till the end of the year with societies such as Gaur City One’s AIG Park Avenue, ATS Green Paradiso, Amrapali Golf Homes, NTPC Anandam, Patel Neo Town, Nimbus Express Park View 2, Supertech Eco Village 1, Panchsheel, Shri Radha Sky Gardens and Antriksh Golf Link, among others,” ACEO Srilakshmi VS said.
