K'taka HC issues notice to BBMP as petitioner questions propriety of microchipping stray dogs
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has issued notice to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) regarding its Request for Proposal (RFP) for the vaccination of stray dogs and implanting microchips inside the bodies of the animals.
The notice was issued by the HC bench consisting of Justices Sunil Dutt Yadav and Venkatesh Naik T, after animal caregiver Priyadarshini S filed a public interest litigation (PIL) questioning the BBMP's Request for Proposal.
The petitioner has complained that the BBMP adopted a combined plan for vaccination of stray dogs using microchips that can be scanned. She has also said that, going by the context of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) rules, the primary mandate of the city corporation is to sterilize or vaccinate the dogs in order to control their population. The locals, however, are well aware that the BBMP is still struggling to set up legally mandated ABC surgical centres at all zones of the city.
The court has also been told that specific approval has not been obtained from the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) regarding the microchipping project on stray dogs, and that an invasive procedure at a large scale as planned by the BBMP is not be found anywhere else in the world. The dogs of Bengaluru cannot be treated as trial samples for an experimental combination of vaccination and microchipping, unless a pilot study has been conducted earlier under controlled conditions.
The petitioner objected to the BBMP desiring to have one RFP for various specialized vaccination procedures including microchipping, infrastructure and monitoring, pointing out that the procedures needed focused implementation plans. It would not be possible for the BBMP to get the same set of people to efficiently undertake all these tasks, without prior discussion and planning with AWBI-identified NGOs, she added.
The court was asked to quash and set aside the tender notification and also direct the respondents to follow the rules set by the ABC while issuing further tender notifications, with a declaration that the respondents are strictly adhering to the ABC rules.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
