Shimla Municipal Corporation to name, shame pet owners for not cleaning poop

Subhash Rajta
Tribune News Service
Shimla, August 11

Your dog can make you famous, err infamous. If it poops on the road and you don’t clean it, the Shimla Municipal Corporation will put out your name and photograph in public spaces, including in the media.

“To name and shame the offenders, we will put up their names and photographs on the big screen installed on Mall Road,” said Ajit Bharadwaj, Joint Commissioner, Shimla Municipal Corporation. “We hope it will act as an effective deterrent and people will mend their ways.”

Golden opportunity

The MC has decided to award parking space along yellow lines to those who will feed and provide shelter to stray dogs. “We will give the parking space for one year initially. If the person continues to take care of the dog, the parking space will be allotted again to him,” said Ajit Bharadwaj, Joint Commissioner, Shimla Municipal Corporation. Not a bad deal given parking comes at a premium in Shimla.

The Municipal Corporation has received several complaints about the pets littering on roads and their owners not bothering to clean it, causing a lot of inconvenience to others. The MC has requested the dog owners to carry a poop bag along while taking their pets out for a walk to keep the roads clean. “The Municipal Corporation does it best to keep the city clean, but people, too, need to chip in. It shocks me how could people make their dog defecate in the middle of the road, even on the iconic Ridge and Mall Road. Even the stairs of the historic Town Hall are often found littered with poop,” said Bharadwaj.

Besides naming and shaming the defaulters, there’s a provision for a challan too. The MC will rope in the police to identify and challan the offenders. It is also planning to pull up those who have not registered their pets with it. “People who have not registered their pets with the MC will be issued challans. Besides, their names and photographs, too, will go up on the screen,” warned the Joint Commissioner.

The MC has also decided to award parking space along yellow lines to those who will feed and provide shelter to stray dogs. “We will give the parking space for one year initially. If the person continues to take care of the dog, the parking space will be allotted again to him,” said Bharadwaj. Not a bad deal given parking comes at a premium in Shimla.

For Sita Ram Sharma, a dog lover who has been working for the betterment of stray dogs in the city for the last six years, the real issue is controlling the population of stray dogs. “The MC needs to address it sooner than later with the involvement of the community, and make its own response system more prompt and effective,” said Sita Ram.

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