A council meeting of the city Corporation held here on Saturday decided to implement compulsory licensing for pet dogs and to increase the licence fee to Rs.100.
Health standing committee chairperson S. Pushpalatha said this would help in countering the abandoning of old and diseased pet dogs, which added to the stray dog population in the city.
The licences would be issued only after ensuring that the house had proper kennel and sanitation and waste-management system to keep a pet dog.
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The civic body also decided to enlist the services of surgeons and a mobile ambulance from the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in Wayanad to sterilise stray dogs from March. The Corporation would bear the cost of the vaccines and the fuel for the ambulance.
The day also witnessed the continuation of the blame game over a draft master plan for the city, which was scrapped by a Cabinet decision. The councillors of the ruling CPI(M) said that though the Cabinet decision was announced on February 7, a government order (GO) to this effect was yet to be published, thus leaving many who were planning to build houses in uncertainty.
“The Urban Affairs Minister is trying to torpedo the Cabinet decision, keeping the interests of the land mafia in mind. The GO on the scrapping of the existing master plan and order for the preparation of a new one should be published immediately,” Works standing committee chairperson V.S. Padmakumar said.
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Opposition councillor Maheswaran Nair brought up the issue of the Corporation previously ‘approving’ the draft plan and later ‘blaming’ the government for it.
When the ruling councillors shouted him down, he threw the microphone away in anger and broke it. The Mayor later brought the situation under control by saying that it is best to avoid futile discussions on the matter when the Council had unanimously decided to scrap the plan.