MC dog registration drive gets poor response

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 11

Inaugurated with great pomp and show, the dog registration cell at the Civil Veterinary Hospital has received a poor response from city residents. The registration process has almost stopped as hardly anyone turns up to get his pet registered.

Despite making tall claims, the MC did not issue challans to pet owners, who did not register their dogs. The drive had started for the registration of pets in the city on July 8 last year. The objective of the drive was to generate funds for the dog sterilisation campaign.

A few residents came forward to get their dogs registered with the health wing of the Municipal Corporation (MC) in the last six months. As per the official data, there are 19,508 pet dogs in the city.

The registration desk was inaugurated by former Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora and MC Commissioner at the Civil Veterinary Hospital in Hathi Gate.

Kujind Singh, veterinary officer of the MC, said, “The response is quite low. After the elections of the MC, the work of registration has almost stopped. It is very rare when someone come for pet registration.” The health wing of the MC had started an awareness campaign to make people aware of the registration of pets.

Earlier, the MC had conducted a survey and found that there were 19,508 pet dogs and around 9,698 stray dogs in the city. The MC had been charging Rs 500 as an annual registration fee for one dog.

As per the directions, the registration is compulsory to keep a pet dog in the jurisdiction of the MC. The MC has planned to spend the money collected from the registration of pet dogs on sterilisation. With a poor response to the registration drive, it is being expected that the start of sterilisation campaign would be delayed.