Shimla Municipal Corporation: Adopt strays, get garbage bills slashed

The Shimla Municipal Corporation has passed a resolution to offer 50 per cent discounts in the garbage bills, to those households who adopt stray dogs. The decision has come in the wake of the rising menace of stray dogs in the city. Kusum Sadret, the mayor of the corporation has said, "This decision is going to benefit both, street dogs as well as the residents. The stray dogs will get shelter while the residents will be saved from biting incidents." 

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Adoption and maintenance of stray dogs is expensive 

Despite the decision taken to curb the growing population of stray dogs, the initiative hasn't been welcomed by many in the city. Sadret will have a meeting with people who have contacted her to discuss the issue of maintenance of the stray dogs after adoption. "Some people have called up regarding the issue of upkeep of these stray dogs, we will have a meeting with them soon," she said. Residents of the city have said that adopting a stray dog is an expensive affair and the discounts offered by the corporation are negligible when compared to the expenses of maintaining a dog.

Meanwhile, Shimla Municipal Corporation had also undertaken a campaign from November 4 to 8, where local residents are required to register the pet dogs with the municipal corporation.

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Authorities from various parts of the country are facing the issues of the rising population of strays. Even in Madhya Pradesh's capital, the Bhopal Municipal Corporation has planned to spend Rs 1.72 crore for sterilisation of stray dogs in order to curb their growing population.  

Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), a wing of the health department, has mentioned that a person is bitten by stray dogs every two hours in the state's capital. Bhopal Municipal Corporation Commissioner, B Vijay Datta has said that as many as four state-of-the-art Animal Birth Control centres will be functional in the state capital within two months.

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(With ANI inputs)