PUNE The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has announced a cat sterilisation programme which will begin soon.
Presenting the draft budget for 2022-23 on Monday, municipal commissioner Vikram Kumar said, “The cat sterilisation programme will launch as per the act and will be executed in the city either on PMC land or private land with the help of private agencies or NGOs. Tenders for the same will be floated soon.”
A PMC officer requesting anonymity said, “The PMC had made a provision of ₹1 crore for the same in the last budget 2021-22. The civic body even floated tenders but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the response was lukewarm and only a single agency approached the PMC. As a result, the cat sterilisation programme was not able to kick-start.”
With the number of animal lovers growing in urban areas, the issue of stray animals (dogs and cats) is becoming a headache for the municipal corporation. Both sides – those who love animals and those who hate them – are becoming increasingly aggressive, with the PMC getting caught in the middle. On the one hand, citizens are filing cases with the PMC over issues such as stray animals, incessant barking and absence of licences among others. Stray cats have become more of a problem in housing societies while stray dogs are seen frequenting even public places. With most cats giving birth to four or five kittens each, the cat population is increasing leading to other problems. Some corporations in the country have already initiated cat sterilisation programmes and now, the PMC is following suit.