Compensate Dog Bite Victims In Delhi: Ex-Minister To Arvind Kejriwal

Former Union minister Vijay Goel on Thursday wrote to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, demanding compensation for dog bite victims in the city.

In his letter to the two functionaries, Mr Goel welcomed the recent judgement of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for providing compensation to victims of stray dog bites.

It is one of the main demands of the movement against the stray dog menace that the state governments should be made responsible for such incidents and should be forced to provide compensation to the victims, the BJP leader said in his letter.

Compensation should be given to stray dog victims throughout the country, said Mr Goel who who has been raising his voice for the sterilisation of stray dogs.

The former Union minister cited the order of Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday, according to which in cases relating to dog bites, the financial assistance will be at a minimum of Rs 10,000 per tooth mark, and where the flesh has been pulled off the skin, it shall be a minimum of Rs 20,000 per '0.2 cm' of the wound.

Mr Goel, chairman of Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, said his main demand is to ensure maximum sterilisation of stray dogs besides compensation to the victims.

There are more than 7 crore stray dogs in the country out of which 8 lakhs stray dogs are in Delhi alone, the minister claimed.

"More than 2,000 cases of dog bites are coming to various hospitals of Delhi every day, but the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi are sitting idly. At RML alone, 200 cases of dog bites turn up daily," he added in his letter.

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