the animal welfare board of india awbi the execution of the abc programme is the responsibility of the local bodies concerned and the state animal husbandry department however according to the officials of the local bodies and the animal husbandry department they do not have infrastructure and manpower for executing the abc programme in tune with the guidelines of the awbi as per the data available with the preventive clinic of alappuzha medical college hospital as many as 1994 people have suffered deep wounds from the dog attacks this year so far dr carol pinheiro of the mch s preventive clinic here said that 1747 people in the district had suffered serious wounds from dog bite last year when as many as 1994 people suffered serious wounds from dog attacks this year till date six people died in the district due to rabies in 2010 and 2011 apart from dog bite cases 1082 people and 822 people suffered serious wounds after being attacked by cats in 2010 and 2011 respectively she said alappuzha municipal chairperson mercy diana masido said that they were also concerned over the increase in the number of stray dog attack cases however we are unable to execute the abc programme as per the guidelines of the awbias per the awbi we have to set up kennels operation theatres and ambulances for sterilization of stray dogs sterilized dogs should be released in the areas from where they are captured these guidelines are not practical so we are staying away from this programme she said the kerala state animal husbandry department ksahd director dr vijayakumar r said that veterinary hospitals in alappuzha were not equipped with adequate equipment for the abc programme our hospitals are keep functioning morning to evening however as per the abc programme the doctors should observe the dogs for two days and should give postoperative care however as per the existing system of the department it is not practical we also face shortage of dog catchers and trained doctors in this connection he said however the execution of the abc programme is going well in thiruvananthapuram corporation and thodupuzha municipality with the support of our department he said alappuzha district panchayat president u pratibha hari said that though they were ready to allot funds for executing the abc programme in the district they had not received any project from the local bodies in the district in this connection so far there are also provisions in panchayati raj act for imposing fine on the dog owners if their dogs attacked people but local bodies are not ready to implement it she said heritage animal task force secretary v k venkitachalam alleged that though the animal husbandry department have adequate funds for the abc programme they are using the funds of abc programme for other purposes the department is not giving any importance for the stray dogs the state government and the awbi should take immediate steps for implementing the effective execution of the abc programme